Jens Pulver will never, ever retire (video of his comments)
By Zach Arnold | August 12, 2010
“I’ve had my highs, I’ve had my lows, but at the end of the day I love this sport, I love competing, I love being out there in front of all the fans,I love being around, this is my family, this is my people. I grew up around all these guys just like they’ve grown up around me and so I know when every one of them steps out there, they’re going to go out there and they’re going to go out there hard every time and make me proud, everybody out there. You know me, I know one thing — if I ain’t crying, I’m trying, so you know what I mean? So we’ll see what happens. I’m going to go out there, I’m going to throw down, I’m going to do what I can do, I’m going to try to shake off this rust and try to [pull] out a win or two out of this whole ordeal and again, thank you guys very much for bringing me in. Thank you so much for having me down here and thank you all very much and see you on Saturday.”
Here is the card line-up for the mystery Irvine, CA. show on Saturday night on PPV. I couldn’t even get basic information on the card and venue on the promotion’s web site.
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Strikeforce 8/13 Phoenix, Arizona at The Dodge Theatre
By Zach Arnold | August 12, 2010
The air date on Showtime is 11 PM EST (Showtime East) and 11 PM PST (Showtime West). Yes, a delay of the broadcast on the West Coast… again.
Dark matches
- Frankie Sainz vs. Jace Crawford
- Andres Acuna vs. Edwin Louis
- Tim Worth vs. Rob Anderson
- Joel Champion vs. Sean Scott
- Jeffrey Anderson vs. Edmon Xhelili
- Christian Grosinsky vs. Jason Karpel
- Ryan Diaz vs. Chris Guertzemacher
- 135-pound women’s tournament alternate fight: Colleen Schneider vs. Liz Carmouche
Main card
- 135-pound women’s tournament featuring Miesha Tate, Carina Damm, Hitomi Akano, & Maiju Kujala (first round matches are two rounds of 3 minutes each, championship match is three rounds of 3 minutes each)
- Lightweights: Ryan Couture vs. Lucas Stark
- 182-pound fight: Joe Riggs vs. Louis Taylor
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Bellator 24 at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida
By Zach Arnold | August 12, 2010
Without much fanfare, the launch of season three tonight for Bellator on Fox Sports Net/Comcast Sportsnet.
Undercard
- Bantamweights: Brian Eckstein vs. Tulio Quintanilla
- Featherweights: Eric Luke vs. Farkhad Sharipov
- Middleweights: Efrain Ruiz vs. Nico Parella
- Middleweights: Frank Carrillo vs. Moyses Gabin
- Lightweights: Yves Edwards vs. Luis Palomino
Main card
- 115-pound women’s tournament: Carla Esparza vs. Megumi Fujii
- 115-pound women’s tournament: Lynn Alvarez vs. Jessica Aguilar
- Heavyweight tournament: Neil Grove vs. Eddie Sanchez
- Middleweights: Hector Lombard vs. Herbert Goodman
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Dave Batista: “I would like to legitimize myself as a martial artist”
By Zach Arnold | August 11, 2010
I’m using that spelling of his last name because that’s how it is on on the video interview. There’s a lot of wrestler-speak in this video, but there’s also occasional grains of truth about his motives.
If there are any punctuation issues, the reason is because I had to edit out all the ‘you knows’ and commas — 43 you knows in a 7 minute interview.
Transcript available in full-page view.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, Pro-Wrestling, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
If Josh Koscheck beats GSP, will that solve the “Jon Fitch problem” in the Welterweight division?
By Zach Arnold | August 10, 2010
In that article, you can read the quotes Dana White made about how he thinks Jon Fitch has softened his stance on fighting Josh Koscheck should Koscheck beat Georges St. Pierre in December. Also, it’s clear that Dana’s position on Jon Fitch being the #1 contender in the Welterweight division is now slightly… nuanced.
Steve Cofield & Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports talked about a recent conversation Dave Meltzer had with Jon Fitch in which Fitch made it clear that his stance on fighting Josh Koscheck has not changed. The dilemma is what happens if Shields has a ‘boring’ performance against Martin Kampmann in October?
Transcript can be seen in full-page mode.
Continue reading this article here…
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Kevin Iole: Think February for Sonnen/Silva re-match and Anderson will mentally break down Vitor Belfort in a fight
By Zach Arnold | August 10, 2010
Related: Only in fighting can you lie about your opponent and become a big babyface overnight
In that Torch article, three possibilities are discussed next for the UFC Middleweight title picture — book the Anderson Silva/Chael Sonnen re-match, give Vitor Belfort his title match against Anderson Silva, or book Sonnen and Belfort in a #1 challenger’s fight and let the winner face Anderson in 2011.
I definitely want to hear your thoughts about how you would rank each possibility.
In this conversation between Yahoo Sports MMA writers Kevin Iole & Steve Cofield, there’s plenty of discussion about how injured both Sonnen and Silva are, why Vitor Belfort doesn’t stand much of a chance against Anderson Silva, and how much stronger the interest will be for a rematch from the UFC 117 main event.
Transcript in full-page mode.
Continue reading this article here…
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Is there such a thing as a PPV blackout based on region?
By Zach Arnold | August 9, 2010
I’ll elaborate on that in a second.
First… article of the day: UFC 117 – Jon Fitch and Chael Sonnen demonstrate the positives and negatives of MMA as sport and entertainment
Gilbert Melendez is a brand new father. He has a new baby girl named Leylakay Valentina Melendez that was born on Sunday at 1:18 PM. 7 pounds, 13 ounces. Congratulations.
Darren Uyenoyama announced that he will be fighting Shooto 60kg champion Shuichiro Katsumurau on 9/23 in Tokyo. Naturally, it will be a non-title match. This has upset Sherdog’s Tony Loiseleur:
Just heard Darren Uyenoyama WON’T face Shuichiro Katsumura for the belt. It’ll be more non-title silliness. Oh JMMA, will you never learn?
Should be fun: Katsumura is an accomplished grappler. We saw him capture the title from Masakatsu Ueda w/what Bravo called the “ninja choke.”
Uyenoyama himself is good in BJJ, spending some years out of MMA to hone it. If he’s half as active as when he fought Tokoro, then great.
I saw a unique message yesterday from someone who works at the UFC gym in Concord, California:
UFC 117 is being blacked-out 30 miles from the coliseum… So the fight will not be shown in Walnut Creek … But it is being shown @ the UFC gym in Concord 1975 diamond blvd…This event is open to members and non-members alike…
Does anyone know if this ‘blackout’ rule has happened before for other UFC PPV events? The blackout rule has proved to be controversial before for the NFL in certain markets (Jacksonville and… Oakland with the Raiders). Has Comcast or other PPV providers ever been able to enforce or implement such a blackout rule for a PPV? (This sounds so odd because I’ve seen non-stop barker advertising for the show on CSN Bay Area.)
Jake Rossen says that Chael Sonnen will now forever run around telling people that he once beat Anderson Silva and call Anderson the greatest pound-for-pound fighter ever.
Ed Soares doesn’t think that Chael Sonnen deserves an immediate rematch to fight Anderson Silva.
Yoshihiro Akiyama claism ex-manager embezzled a lot of money from him.
The Los Angeles Business Journal has more details on MC Hammer getting into the MMA agency business and it is noted that there are financial backers supporting this agency. Why are financial backers needed to support an MMA agency — shouldn’t an agency be able to generate it’s own cash?
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Matt Hughes will return to UFC action in 2011
By Zach Arnold | August 8, 2010
FROM THE MMAFIGHTING.COM WEB SITE:
ARIEL HELWANI: “Matt, congratulations on a very impressive win. Can you talk about how you set up that submission?”
MATT HUGHES: “I think the submission got set up with the hook, which you could hear my corner ‘throw the hook,’ they yelled it for several seconds. So, the hook was there. I threw the hook. He was dazed, he went down and I got in a front headlock position and that’s an old wrestling move I used to use all the time in college wrestling and it’s probably something that Ricardo’s never seen. I mean, he’s a great grappler, but that’s just an old wrestling move that you know he was just unprepared of or he wasn’t thinking right from the knockdown.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “So, do you think that you submitted him… it seems as though it was almost an arm-triangle, Anaconda, what was it that exactly?”
MATT HUGHES: “We always called it an arm-in front headlock. So, actually, it’s a blood choke, you know, I’m choking the blood off. But, I mean, people get very confident with their arm in there but it’s something where I could put a lot of power on it and I’ve choked a lot of people out with it.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “It seemed as though really your strength is what was able to allow you to finish that and a lot of people know about Almeida’s submission skills as you said. Did you think you would be able to submit him?”
MATT HUGHES: “I’ll be real honest, I knew going into the fight that that might that, there’s two submissions that I thought was going to come into play for me. The ol’ tried-and-true key lock and that front headlock, but I figured it would come about from him shooting on me to try to take me down. He did a great job on his feet, covering those inches, those last couple of inches. Great feints, so I didn’t know if it was a punch, kick, or a shot coming from him. Did a good job neutralizing my feet. He just let his guard down with a punch and I was able to knock him down and then put a submission on him that maybe he never seen before.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “I notice you have a cut here. How did you get that?”
MATT HUGHES: “About five weeks ago training. Pure fluke. It’s just one of those things that happens.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Was there a chance that you might not be able to fight? I mean, was it pretty deep?”
MATT HUGHES: “It was deep. had a good, some good stitches, but I mean it was five weeks ago, so it wasn’t going to keep me from stepping in the Octagon.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “All right, so I asked you prior to this fight, in Abu Dhabi you told me that you were not looking to fight in the next few months. Now, here you are, you were only in there for a couple of minutes. Any chance we might see you again this year?”
MATT HUGHES: “Not this year. I want to, I’ve got a lot of hunting to do in the Fall. That’s my passion, so I’m going to hunt the Fall out and come next year I’ll talk to the UFC and we’ll figure something out.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “A lot of people like to talk about what is left for Matt Hughes to do. You were just, you know, put into the UFC Hall of Fame, which congratulations by the way. But, I mean, what is there for you to strive for? I mean, you still in the title chase? Because you continue to look great out there.”
MATT HUGHES: “I tell you… what’s in it for me is I have a good time going to the gym every day. I have a good time doing the training, the time with my partners. I have a good time in the Octagon, so I mean why would I stop?”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Who would you like to fight next?”
MATT HUGHES: “I have no idea.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “No one out there?”
MATT HUGHES: “I’m still celebrating my victory I just had. So, I’m not worried about who’s next. I’ve got a lot of things to do this Fall, so I mean whoever’s next for me is not even on my mind right now.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “But I’m guessing you believe and you’re fully confident that you have one more title run left in you? Maybe another?”
MATT HUGHES: “I’m telling you that I’m not done fighting in the UFC, yet.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “And I’m sure you’re willing to accept The Gracie Killer label now at this point? C’mon.”
MATT HUGHES: “I’m not, just not a big nickname, never had a nickname, don’t want a nickname, and I don’t want to be labeled as a guy looking for the Gracies. I’ve never asked to fight a Gracie, the UFC’s always come to me with fighting the Gracies. Ricardo came to me. So, I mean, I don’t want that. I’ve got too much respect for them to be labeled The Gracie Killer.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Congratulations again, Matt, very impressive stuff.”
MATT HUGHES: “Thank you.”
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No broken hand for Junior dos Santos?
By Zach Arnold | August 8, 2010
FROM THE WEB SITE MMAFIGHTING.COM:
ARIEL HELWANI: “Junior, congratulations on a very, very big win. Were you happy with what you did out there?”
JUNIOR DOS SANTOS: “Thank you very much. It was a nice fight. He surprised me. He’s a very, very tough fighter and I’m very happy with this victory.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Tougher than you thought he would be?”
JUNIOR DOS SANTOS: “Yeah. Tougher, tougher. Some guy told me he is a tough, tough guy but my thoughts about him now is that he’s tougher than I thought before.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “When you were hitting him with some of those shots, in your mind were you just thinking, ‘how’s this guy not going down’?”
JUNIOR DOS SANTOS: “Yeah, yeah, it’s unbelievable. He’s got a great defense, too, and man, it was a nice fight.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Were you surprised that he didn’t try to take you down a couple more times?”
JUNIOR DOS SANTOS: “Yeah. I have pretty good wrestling and I trained that a lot, wrestling, all the arts, and my game plan was don’t let him put me down, you know. My game plan was good. I can do it. I can do what I trained for this fight, you know.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “You just got stitched up. How did you get that cut?”
JUNIOR DOS SANTOS: “He gave me a punch with his left hand, a hard punch, and cut my face.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Speaking of left hands, I had heard from someone, I just want to confirm it. Did you break your left hand during the fight?”
JUNIOR DOS SANTOS: “In this fight?”
ARIEL HELWANI: “In this fight, did you injure your left hand at all?”
JUNIOR DOS SANTOS: “No, no, no, no, no. It hurts a little bit. Just hurts a little bit, my thumb. Yeah, right. Just it. It don’t hurt any more.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “So, now, up next for you, title shot. Have you thought about that yet or are you still recovering from this fight?”
JUNIOR DOS SANTOS: “Yeah, now I’m going to start thinking about this fight now but I am very happy for this and my dream is to be a UFC champion and I will.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Have you had a chance to look back at your time here in the UFC? You’ve come in and you’ve really just impressed everyone and when you came in and fought Fabricio Werdum, not a lot of people knew who you were and you just came out on the scene and every step along the way you’ve just continued to look good and continue to really, you know, gain more fans. Have you had a chance to just sit back and go, wow, look what’s happened in less than two years to me?”
JUNIOR DOS SANTOS: “Yeah, yeah, very impressive with my fans and what happened now. Everything is very new in my life and it’s made me very happy but I think I deserve it because I train hard every day and I will continue in my career training harder than now.”
Watch the video to hear Junior talk about the Brock Lesnar/Cain Velasquez fight in October and his thoughts on who he may end up facing.
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Is a rematch between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen in order?
By Zach Arnold | August 7, 2010
I don’t even have to write much text here. Reply.
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UFC 117: 8/7 Oakland, California at Oracle Arena (Silva vs. Sonnen)
By Zach Arnold | August 6, 2010
Dark matches
- Light Heavyweights: Todd Brown vs. Tim Boetsch
- Welterweights: Ben Saunders vs. Dennis Hallman
- Welterweights: Johny Hendricks vs. Charlie Brenneman
- Heavyweights: Stefan Struve vs. Christian Morecraft
- Welterweights: Dustin Hazelett vs. Rick Story
- Light Heavyweights: Rodney Wallace vs. Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis
Main card
- Heavyweights: Roy Nelson vs. Junior dos Santos
- Welterweights: Matt Hughes vs. Ricardo Almeida
- Lightweights: Clay Guida vs. Rafael Dos Anjos
- Welterweights: Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves
- UFC Middleweight Title match: Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen
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Tito Ortiz and HDNet married in a bed of stupidity; Update: Transcript of Chael Sonnen accusing Anderson Silva of greasing before fights
By Zach Arnold | August 6, 2010
The discourse has truly been elevated.
Video: Tito Ortiz to target Matt Hamill’s ‘soft head’ with ‘small shots’
Ortiz believes upcoming opponent Matt Hamill’s deafness indicates that he has a “soft head” that leaves him vulnerable to “small shots” in volume.
And the press release sent out by HDNet for this video?
More smack from Sonnen while Tito slams Hamill’s handicap – tomorrow night on HDNet’s Inside MMA
Ortiz said that Hamill has no equilibrium because, “he’s deaf so he has a soft head and you hit him with more and more shots.” Hamill, who is deaf, trained under Ortiz on Season 3 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” and will face him at UFC 121 in October. Ortiz tells Kenny Rice and Bas Rutten that Hamill has been, “…babied his whole life coming from being deaf. He’s gonna be babied after, when I knock him out and look for a little snuggle.”
Update (8/6): Here’s the video of Chael Sonnen (10 minutes long) accusing Anderson Silva of greasing before fights:
The transcript can be read in full-page mode.
Continue reading this article here…
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Jon Fitch talks about new diet and thoughts heading into UFC 117 fight against Thiago Alves
By Zach Arnold | August 6, 2010
A passage from a good interview he did with Josh Gross of Sports Illustrated a couple of days ago:
JOSH GROSS: “How has [Alves] changed as a fighter since 2006, though?”
JON FITCH: “You know, His wrestling has definitely gotten better and he’s much bigger than he was when we first fought. He’s also matured much more mentally than I think. He’s much more of a man now today than he was four years ago.”
JOSH GROSS: “And you, how have you changed in that time?”
JON FITCH: “You know, I’ve developed my skill set all the way around. I’m much better striking, my wrestling’s even gotten better, I’m a black belt in jiu-jitsu now. I’ve even become a better athlete with the help of my strength & conditioning coach. Even my physique from changing to an organic diet has changed. You know, my weight doesn’t fluctuate as much as it used to in-between fights, you know, I’m always pretty close to that weight cut, that fight weight.”
JOSH GROSS: “When did you do that?”
JON FITCH: “It was last year, right before UFC 100, a couple of weeks before UFC 100 I started cleaning my diet up a lot and it made a huge difference. Like, the weight cuts comes very easily now, you know, it’s nothing to lose 15 pounds and put it back on with this diet.”
JOSH GROSS: “What was motivation for you to do that? I mean, there’s so many people out there with ideas on dieting and weight-cutting and the kind of nutritional balance you should have. A lot of guys use nutritionists. What was the motivation? Who was the person that or the people that inspired you to do that?”
JON FITCH: “Well, I mean, a lot of it was from my fiancé, she wrote a book and put me onto it, it’s called The Skinny Bastard. It basically just scared the crap out of me because it tells you know it talks about all the chemicals and all the nasty stuff in our food and the stuff you don’t even think about or realize and there’s a lot of things that we eat, that the Government allows us to eat, that are straight-up poisonous and it’s just something your body should never have in it. And then from that point I started doing more research and then reading more and studying more and just finding better, cleaner foods.”
JOSH GROSS: “Yeah. You’re 32 now. Have you noticed your body, it takes a little more time to recover? Have you noticed the wear and tear starting to take effect at all?”
JON FITCH: “Uh, no, I mean, people have been telling me this for a long time, ‘oh wait until you’re this age’ but no I mean I don’t notice a difference. I’ve been wrestling since the fourth grade and I’ve been in pain since the fourth grade, like there’s no change. It’s always felt the same. I’ve never felt like rosy and fresh and OK, like [I’ve] always been working hard and always been sore and always been in pain so I feel exactly the same now as I did when I was a little kid.”
JOSH GROSS: “A shower doesn’t feel right unless you get the burning sensation from the skin that’s not there?”
JON FITCH: “Yeah, I mean, it’s just, you know, day-to-day, it’s just regular life for me. I wouldn’t know what it would feel like any other way.”
JOSH GROSS: “Yeah, your fight in Oakland at the Oracle (Arena) on the 7th… A lot of people have made this sort of a Jon Fitch thing, you know, the decision, going the distance, you’ve gone 7 in a row now. Do you even concern yourself with that? Does that bother you or is that some of your thought process at all?”
JON FITCH: “No, I mean, I think I catch a lot of flack for it but you know there’s two guys in a fight and all I can say it’s very difficult to fight somebody who’s only fighting to survive.”
JOSH GROSS: “Do you see Thiago as someone who’s just there to survive or is he there to knock your head off?”
JON FITCH: “Yeah, he’s going to make things a lot easier for me because he’s going to be coming forward to try to knock my head off. He’s not somebody who’s going to go out there and try to win a moral victory.”
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