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Hoping to get his career back on track, Wanderlei Silva will be fighting for Bellator after the two sides agreed to a contract Wednesday.
According to Bellator’s official press release, Silva’s deal with the promotion is “an exclusive mult…
Hoping to get his career back on track, Wanderlei Silva will be fighting for Bellator after the two sides agreed to a contract Wednesday.
According to Bellator’s official press release, Silva’s deal with the promotion is “an exclusive multiyear, multifight contract.”
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It took some last-minute maneuvering, but UFC President Dana White was able to put together a main event for UFC 196 featuring Conor McGregor taking on Nate Diaz.
The event was originally supposed to be headlined by McGregor challenging Rafael do…
It took some last-minute maneuvering, but UFC President Dana White was able to put together a main event for UFC 196 featuring Conor McGregor taking on Nate Diaz.
The event was originally supposed to be headlined by McGregor challenging Rafael dos Anjos for the UFC lightweight championship, but the Brazilian was forced to withdraw from the bout after suffering a broken foot in training, per Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com.
Given the last-minute adjustment as well as the uncertainty surrounding Diaz, it should come as no surprise that McGregor will enter the March 5 showdown in Las Vegas as a heavy favorite.
During a Tuesday night appearance on SportsCenter (via Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com), White said UFC made calls to multiple fighters to take dos Anjos’ spot: “We called Jose Aldo; Jose Aldo turned the fight down. We called Frankie Edgar; Frankie Edgar turned the fight down. Those are two guys everybody was talking about.”
It’s not a surprise that Aldo and Edgar turned down the opportunity to fight McGregor. They don’t have the time to prepare for a high-profile bout, and Aldo is smart enough to know a second fight with McGregor will require him to be 100 percent after the Irishman knocked him out in 13 seconds in December.
Diaz, who has only been out of the Octagon for two months since his win over Michael Johnson, has an opportunity to keep momentum going.
The 30-year-old had a disastrous run of things before defeating Johnson, missing weight in his December 2014 bout against dos Anjos and losing via unanimous decision. It took him 12 months to step back into the cage following that defeat.
McGregor is taking a chance with this bout by moving up two weight classes from his usual featherweight to welterweight on short notice. He hasn’t been shy about his willingness to fight anyone in any weight class:
Yet this is McGregor’s first bout at 165 pounds in the UFC. He’s certainly proved to be a powerful striker, owning 17 knockouts among his 20 career victories, but this is uncharted territory for The Notorious.
Diaz’s desire is always a question, as he missed weight against dos Anjos by more than five pounds and didn’t bother to try cutting to avoid a financial penalty.
McGregor is operating at such a high level and was already preparing for one of the best fighters in the world, so he should have no problems stopping Diaz at UFC 196.
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Bellator is going back to the past for its main event on February 19, with Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie locking horns for the third time in their illustrious mixed martial arts careers to settle a rivalry that spans 23 years.
Shamrock and Gracie first…
Bellator is going back to the past for its main event on February 19, with Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie locking horns for the third time in their illustrious mixed martial arts careers to settle a rivalry that spans 23 years.
Shamrock and Gracie first met in the semifinals at UFC 1 in 1993, which was back when UFC had tournaments on its pay-per-view shows. Their most recent bout was a draw at UFC 5 two years later, though both competitors would go on to have Hall of Fame careers.
These aren’t the same athletes from their prime years, but Shamrock and Gracie are legends in the sport capable of putting on a show for the masses.
Before the moment of truth arrives Friday, let’s look back at the respective careers of Shamrock and Gracie.
In the days before UFC had official weight-class designations, its championship was known as the superfight title.
Shamrock became the first superfight champion in UFC history when he defeated Dan Severn at UFC 6 in July 1995. However, the title was initially supposed to be decided in the first bout between Shamrock and Gracie at UFC 5 four months earlier.
That fight remains the longest in UFC history, taking 36 minutes with no winner declared because there were no judges.
Those were back in the days before UFC had five-minute rounds, instead using 20-minute time limits for quarterfinal and semifinal matches and a 30-minute limit for the finals and superfights.
Since neither Shamrock nor Gracie were able to put the other away before the 30 minutes went by, additional time was added before the match was eventually ruled a draw.
Examining Shamrock’s career, even though he’s built like a mack truck, his greatest success came on the ground, with 23 submission victories. He’s never been a powerful striker but does utilize his strength to set up the ground game.
The problem for Shamrock in his rivalry with Gracie is the Brazilian Hall of Famer happens to be one of the greatest submission artists in MMA history, negating Shamrock’s strengths as a fighter, which helps explain why he has yet to score a victory in their previous two matches.
Friday night is a historic one for mixed martial arts. Gracie, who along with Shamrock was part of the inaugural UFC Hall of Fame class, has not fought since 2007, when he defeated Kazushi Sakuraba at the age of 40.
That was also a memorable event for Gracie, though not in a good way, because he was subsequently fined and suspended after testing positive for steroids. It wasn’t a vintage performance, though that was to be expected for a 40-year-old who hadn’t fought more than one year at the time.
One of the last truly captivating performances from Gracie came at the 2004 K-1 Premium Dynamite event on New Year’s Eve against Akebono Taro:
That victory over Taro also happens to be Gracie’s last by submission heading into Friday. Yet if younger fans want to know exactly what the Brazilian jiu-jitsu sensation was like in his prime, UFC has evidence from his bout with Kimo Leopoldo at UFC 3:
There has never been a better BJJ practitioner in MMA history than Gracie, who owns a 12-0 record in fights decided by submission and won his first 11 matches in UFC by submission.
Gracie will certainly show some rust having been out of the cage for nearly nine years, yet the ground game is built into the family’s blood. He could fall out of bed tomorrow and submit a professional fighter before brushing his teeth.
As long as Gracie doesn’t try to trade with Shamrock, who doesn’t need to be a great knockout artist against a 49-year-old, his return to mixed martial arts should be a successful one.
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Bellator 149 is going to be a monumental day for the sport of mixed martial arts, featuring many high-profile returns, including Kimbo Slice stepping back in the cage for his first fight of 2016 against Dhafir Harris.
Slice started his Bellator c…
Bellator 149 is going to be a monumental day for the sport of mixed martial arts, featuring many high-profile returns, including Kimbo Slice stepping back in the cage for his first fight of 2016 against Dhafir Harris.
Slice started his Bellator career on a high note, knocking out Ken Shamrock last June in his first MMA fight since 2010. He spent 2011-13 as a professional boxer, going 7-0 in two years, before returning to the sport that made him a star.
Harris, like Slice, got his start putting on exhibitions in backyard events. DADA 5000, as Harris is also known, used to be Slice’s bodyguard before creating his own path to a career in mixed martial arts that will culminate in Friday’s showdown at Houston’s Toyota Center.
Any discussion of Slice’s fighting career has to start with his time as a backyard street fighter, which propelled him to stardom on YouTube.
Because those videos were generating millions of hits, Slice began training to start an official mixed martial arts career. His debut came in an exhibition with Cage Fury Fighting Championships in June 2007, and he won against Ray Mercer with a guillotine in 72 seconds.
Slice’s official professional debut came against Bo Cantrell as part of EliteXC in November 2007. It was a perfect night that allowed the brawler to show off his skills in quick fashion:
It was also an ideal debut for Slice because his fight was the semi-main event on a Showtime card, so the MMA world was watching. Two more knockout wins in 2008 seemed to have him on a path to stardom, especially with a match against Ken Shamrock set for a CBS prime-time card.
However, an injury to Shamrock forced Seth Petruzelli into the spotlight. Petruzelli could have been a sacrifical lamb but instead upended everything by knocking Slice out in 14 seconds:
Slice’s MMA career would continue with little success. He made it to UFC, winning a match in The Ultimate Fighter finale card against Houston Alexander, but a loss to Matt Mitrione in his first pay-per-view bout at UFC 113 spelled the end.
UFC cut Slice following the loss, and he hasn’t been back since. His five-year hiatus ended on June 19, 2015, when he finally got that match with Shamrock and scored a first-round knockout.
Even though Slice is clearly more of a novelty act than a fighter, he’s still entertaining to watch and capable of providing fireworks. A matchup against someone who is basically his equal in terms of polish and style has the potential to be thrilling.
Harris highlight videos are sparse, mainly because he doesn’t have much professional experience despite being 38 years old. His major highlight-reel moments are all in low-quality videos uploaded to YouTube (Warning: Video contains NSFW language):
Harris’ two professional fights took place between March 2010 and February 2011—both victories by knockout in the first round.
It’s easy to get lost in the parallels between Slice’s and Harris’ respective careers, but Harris broke away from Slice precisely because they couldn’t come to an agreement on which direction to take.
In an interview with MMAJunkie Radio, Harris said he wanted to keep organizing unsanctioned backyard fights, but “they saw it different, so I went my separate route. They told me I was making the biggest mistake of my life.”
Harris appears to have gotten the last laugh, saying in the interview that he’s “been in Maxim, ESPN several times, Miami Herald, (Orlando) Sun Sentinel, VICE. We’ve broke records for everything we’ve done, and it’s clear, anything that I throw up, it blows up.”
In addition to those appearances on mainstream networks, Harris had a documentary called Dawg Fight released on Netflix. The movie showcases his work as a promoter of backyard fights and his getting discovered by scouts.
The final piece of this puzzle will be decided on Friday as the student looks to overcome his former teacher.
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Former UFC light heavyweight champion and current Bellator MMA fighter Tito Ortiz has reportedly been cited for misdemeanor battery.
According to TMZ Sports, police responded to a call regarding a disturbance at the Cromwell Hotel in Las Vegas wh…
Former UFC light heavyweight champion and current Bellator MMA fighter Tito Ortiz has reportedly been cited for misdemeanor battery.
According to TMZ Sports, police responded to a call regarding a disturbance at the Cromwell Hotel in Las Vegas where a woman “claimed Ortiz got physical with her and tried to rip her phone away.” Brett Okamoto of ESPN confirmed the report, adding no court date has been set yet.
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More than one year after signing with UFC, former WWE superstar CM Punk finally has an opponent for his mixed martial arts debut.
Mickey Gall, who defeated Mike Jackson by submission at UFC Fight Night 82 on Saturday, has been given the task of c…
More than one year after signing with UFC, former WWE superstar CM Punk finally has an opponent for his mixed martial arts debut.
Mickey Gall, who defeated Mike Jackson by submission at UFC Fight Night 82 on Saturday, has been given the task of challenging Punk, per UFC President Dana White:
An official date for Punk’s UFC debut has not been set, but Damon Martin of Fox Sports noted White said after the event the company is targeting UFC 199 in June, which will be headlined by Chris Weidman vs. Luke Rockhold for the middleweight title.
Speaking to reporters after his first UFC fight was confirmed, per MMA Fighting, Punk referred to himself as a mystery because this is uncharted territory for him:
While Punk’s MMA skills are certainly a mystery, especially since he’s beginning his professional fighting career at the age of 37, Gall is a bigger unknown by virtue of most people having never heard of him.
The 24-year-old doesn’t have an extensive professional resume, with his win Saturday just the second of his career, and it happened during the UFC Fight Pass portion of the preliminary card, but he’s oozing confidence.
Gall told Martin after the win what he expects to see happen against Punk: “I’m excited to fight a superstar. I’m going to beat up a superstar. I’m excited for that.”
Ben Fowlkes of USA Today also posited a theory that Gall’s quick victory over Jackson may have worked to his advantage moving forward:
Bryan Alvarez of Figure Four Weekly did question the way UFC decided to start promotion for Punk’s debut:
It’s a valid question because Punk immediately becomes one of the best-known names in UFC by virtue of having been in WWE for nearly a decade. MMA fans don’t often like comparisons to WWE because the latter is a sport with predetermined outcomes, but UFC is also a business.
While there’s no doubt that Punk’s debut will get a bigger push from UFC as the fight date approaches, the official announcement of his first fight should have been treated like a bigger deal than just a staredown on Fight Pass.
Looking ahead to the actual fight, Punk’s age has been a talking point in the past, with White saying on the Grant and Danny Show in Washington, D.C. (per Martin), prior to Saturday’s event that there’s no set plan for the former WWE champion after his first match:
So CM Punk was a wrestler in the WWE, he was a big fan of the UFC and he ended up leaving the WWE and he said ‘Dana, my dream is to fight in the UFC, I want to fight in the UFC, will you let me fight?’ so we’re giving him a fight. We’re bringing in a kid who has obviously a little more experience than he does, if he wins this fight this Saturday he’ll be 2-0 and Punk is 0-0. We’ll see how it goes for him. He will decide what he wants to do after that.
This is certainly a special circumstance for UFC and Punk. He’s going to be unfairly compared to Brock Lesnar due to being a former WWE superstar transitioning into mixed martial arts.
Lesnar moved to MMA at the age of 29 in 2006, honed some of his skills in K-1 and then signed a deal with UFC. He also came into the sport at a time when UFC’s heavyweight division was in a state of transition, with stars like Randy Couture and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira entering the twilight of their respective careers.
Punk is nearly a decade older than Lesnar with zero in-ring experience outside of his training and is fighting in a loaded welterweight division. He could easily make this a one-and-done event just to say he fulfilled a lifelong dream, which may be anticlimactic for fans given all the hype around his arrival 14 months ago.
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