Randy “The Natural” Couture had an awesome nickname. It was everything a nickname should be: it was fitting, inspirational and simple, it flowed easily off the tongue, and, most importantly, it sounded cool. There are some who have extravagant for…
Randy “The Natural” Couture had an awesome nickname. It was everything a nickname should be: it was fitting, inspirational and simple, it flowed easily off the tongue, and, most importantly, it sounded cool.
There are some who have extravagant formulas when compiling a list of the best nicknames in MMA. They feel the moniker should have some sort of personal meaning and/or reflect the fighter’s style in some way.
I’m not here to rain on that parade. It’s great if those criteria can be met. If they cannot, however, then it’s perfectly fine to just go with something that sounds good.
That being said, it’s also okay not to even have a nickname, especially if you’re going to call yourself something way too close to J-Lo, hypothetically speaking of course. Matt Hughes didn’t have a nickname and he was one of the best fighters of all time.
Nicknames are nice and all, but much like a hairpiece, it’s better not to have one at all than to have a bad one.
Here are the 10 best nicknames in MMA today, in no particular order.
The world of MMA media recently blew up with rumors that former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia had signed with Strikeforce and would face heavyweight grand prix champion Daniel Cormier. It didn’t take long for Dana White to shoot …
The world of MMA media recently blew up with rumors that former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia had signed with Strikeforce and would face heavyweight grand prix champion Daniel Cormier.
It didn’t take long for Dana White to shoot that rumor down by confirming with The Underground that Sylvia was not in fact signed to a Strikeforce contract.
This may seem like a strange sentiment, but that was highly disappointing.
Sylvia has become a favorite whipping boy of MMA fans for his post-UFC antics.
After the bizarre move of requesting a release from an organization that every fighter strives for, he went off and suffered consecutive knockouts to Fedor Emelianenko and Ray Mercer in a combined time of just 45 seconds.
Since then, he’s posted a 7-1 record on the regional circuit against unheralded opposition, including a 32-second knockout loss to Abe Wagner.
Suffice it to say, since being granted a release by the UFC, Sylvia has not exactly set the world on fire. He often shows up for his fights in awful condition, several times weighting in over 300 pounds.
However, MMA fans still know his name, and whether it’s positive or negative—and let’s be honest here, it’s all negative—he gets attention. The fact that just about every major MMA media outlet jumped on the rumor is a testament to that.
Daniel Cormier needs an opponent—that much is clear. After winning a dominant unanimous decision over Josh Barnett in May, and with the UFC poaching the remainder of Strikeforce’s quality heavyweights, there is no opponent left for him that sparks any interest.
Let’s sincerely hope that legitimacy is not the concern here, because that would be a joke. Silvia may have done a marvelous job of turning himself into a punch line, but he’s still a decent heavyweight and has some name value.
Cormier is just marking time until the Strikeforce heavyweight division is dissolved and he’s brought to the UFC where he belongs. Anyone Strikeforce can sign to fight him isn’t going to be top-of-the-food-chain material, so they may as well be able to spark enough interest to put some eyeballs on the screen.
Tim Sylvia can provide that.
Cormier is scheduled to fight again on September 9th. I’m not Tim Sylvia’s personal assistant or anything, but I’d wager that he’s free on that date.
The Ultimate Fighter 16 begins in September, and the coaches will be none other than Shane Carwin and Roy Nelson. Oh yeah, there are also 32 welterweights vying for the coveted “six-figure contract” and that extremely dated plaque that decl…
The Ultimate Fighter 16 begins in September, and the coaches will be none other than Shane Carwin and Roy Nelson.
Oh yeah, there are also 32 welterweights vying for the coveted “six-figure contract” and that extremely dated plaque that declares them The Ultimate Fighter. But that’s secondary.
After 16 seasons of TUF, the format is a tad played out, to put it kindly.
A bunch of young guys with a lot of bad tattoos and dreams of fighting glory leave behind their lives, wives, girlfriends, kids and jobs to live and train together for a few months. As they do this, television cameras capture their inner children and the inevitable tomfoolery that results from putting young men with a lot of testosterone together in an awesome house stocked with liquor.
It was certainly a winning formula for a reality television series. But it got old about eight seasons ago.
Now, rather than being a show about finding the next great fighter, it’s become a platform to promote the coach’s fight.
There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but let’s call a spade a spade here.
It’s a win/win situation. The ratings may be down, but they’re still good enough to justify its existence. And if a great fighter emerges from it, that’s just an added bonus.
As it stands, the show hasn’t produced a title challenger since Season 5, but you never know. The big prize, though, is the promotional value for the fight between the coaches at the season’s conclusion.
However, there lurks a TUF curse that is seldom spoken of. Over the past four seasons, only one coach’s fight has come to fruition, due to injuries. Hopefully this time is different, because Nelson and Carwin are not only perfect as opposing coaches—they’re also going to put on a great fight.
Carwin and Nelson are diametric personalities. Nelson is the affable clown, the overweight fighter who embraces and plays into the persona by rubbing his belly and sporting a bushy beard and a very impressive mullet.
Carwin is more straight-laced, chiseled and clean-cut. He even holds a day job as a civil engineer. And he will speak out when he disagrees with the negativity he so despises, as he did when he denounced Brock Lesnar after his UFC 100 win over Frank Mir for antics he considered disrespectful, then turned around and defended Lesnar upon learning that he had diverticulitis.
When you look at Roy Nelson, you think, “This is a guy I want to go out for beer and wings with.” When you look at Shane Carwin, you think, “This is a guy I want running something important.”
These two were originally scheduled to fight at UFC 125, but Carwin suffered a neck injury that required surgery. They even partook in a minor tweet war after Nelson learned that Carwin was named in an old steroid investigation.
No charges were ever filed in that case, but that didn’t defuse the bomb Nelson set off by going where he did.
This is all likely to surface again as the season begins. Carwin will attack Nelson’s weight. Nelson will call Carwin a “juicehead.” It’ll be great entertainment for a show that is desperately lacking.
Then they will fight, and say what you will about Nelson, but the guy can thump. He takes a beating better than anyone, and his overhand right commands respect. If Carwin is fully recovered from the back surgery that has sidelined him for the past year, he remains one of the most ferocious heavyweights in the sport.
However, at 37 years old with two major surgeries involving the neck and back over the past few years, it’s not unreasonable to assume he may not return as the sheer terror he once was.
But that is exactly what will make this a great, competitive battle.
Let’s be honest—Carwin at full force would demolish Nelson. With the playing field a little more even, this has the potential to be a phenomenal fight that should mask a very ordinary season of a show way past its expiration date.
The mention of Hector Lombard’s name has been inspiring heated debate amongst hardcore MMA fans for a few years now. Normally, that debate was whether or not he was a Top 10 middleweight. Supporters pointed to his stellar record of 31-2 with one …
The mention of Hector Lombard’s name has been inspiring heated debate amongst hardcore MMA fans for a few years now. Normally, that debate was whether or not he was a Top 10 middleweight.
Supporters pointed to his stellar record of 31-2 with one draw and one no-contest, as well as his current 20-fight win streak—16 of which he finished before the final buzzer.
Detractors point out that his record is padded with low-level fighters, and that the only time he faced top opposition—in the PRIDE 2006 Welterweight Grand Prix—he lost to AkihiroGono and GegardMousasi.
Both sides have an argument, but the detractor’s is much stronger. Lombard’s record is impressive, but so was Jason Reinhardt’s before he arrived in the Octagon.
Since being signed by the UFC in April, the debate has been changed to whether or not Lombard deserves a title shot if he defeats Tim Boetsch at UFC 149—an idea tossed about publicly by Dana White.
Why should a guy who has been beating low-level fighters outside of the UFC get a title shot after one win when they’ve been grinding it out in the UFC, fighting the best for years?
It’s a fair question. It’s just being asked in an unfair world.
Lombard doesn’t deserve a title shot, per se, but there are other factors involved: the lack of a clear-cut No. 1 contender, for starters.
Michael Bisping may make a strong point against Lombard, but the fact remains that he’s coming off a loss to ChaelSonnen, and typically a fighter has to build up a little streak before earning a title shot. Bisping will get his chance to rebound when he takes on Brian Stann at UFC 152.
Munoz is currently out of the title picture after getting steamrolled by Chris Weidman. And the general consensus on Weidman is that he’s not quite ready for a title shot.
That leaves only two guys: Hector Lombard, or his opponent, Tim Boetsch—who is being completely overlooked in all this drama.
Since dropping to middleweight, Boetsch has posted a solid 3-0 record, including a TKO win over former top contender, YushinOkami. An impressive win over Lombard, and Boetsch would be as deserving a challenger as there is at 185.
Having so many worthy challengers at middleweight makes the division seem rather chaotic, but that’s a high-class problem.
Wasn’t long ago that middleweight was neck and neck with heavyweight as the weakest division in the sport. In fact, right around the time Lombard was losing in PRIDE, a relatively unknown Brazilian by the name of Anderson Silva was earning himself a UFC title shot after only a single win—a brutal knockout over Chris Leben.
But that was then, when the division was horribly shallow. This is now. And because business decisions are often based, justifiably, on expediency rather than merit, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Lombard get a title shot if he wins at UFC 149, especially if he wins impressively.
Considering 90 percent of the sport’s top talent is in the UFC, it’s nothing but speculative to proclaim top status to a fighter who made his bones outside of the UFC. Case in point: Jorge Santiago.
Hector Lombard may very well be the Second Coming. We simply do not know because he hasn’t been facing the best of the best. If he’s victorious against Boetsch, then he should have to face another top contender.
But that’s in a fair world.
In the real world, the UFC may see fit to grant him a title shot based on their business needs—and there’s nothing at all wrong with that—but he does not deserve a title shot.
Unless you’re a hardcore MMA fan who scours the internet for any little bit of fight news you can sink your teeth into, you may not know there’s a Strikeforce event on July 14—a pretty good one, too.Light-heavyweight champion Luke Rockhold is tak…
Unless you’re a hardcore MMA fan who scours the internet for any little bit of fight news you can sink your teeth into, you may not know there’s a Strikeforce event on July 14—a pretty good one, too.
Light-heavyweight champion Luke Rockhold is taking on Tim Kennedy, and Tyron Woodley will throw down with former UFC top contender Nate Marquardt for the vacant welterweight title.
Also on the card are a pretty interesting fight between grappling phenom Roger Gracie and the awkwardly entertaining Keith Jardine and a slugger’s delight with Robbie Lawler taking on Lorenz Larkin.
It may seem curious that this event, which features two title fights being contested on the second largest stage in the sport, is getting so little attention. But it’s really not. It was to be expected.
It’s not your fault if you don’t know about it, of course. With two UFC events going down within the past week, there just wasn’t enough promotional wiggle-room at Zuffa for them to put much marketing effort behind this event.
And it shows.
Not only is there absolutely zero buzz about this show, but MMAJunkie was on the scene at the pre-fight press conference and described a doomsday scenario.
Heck, Wikipedia didn’t even bother making a page for it.
We could point to the usual culprits: Over-saturation, lack of marketing, etc. And those things do matter. But really, this is just a matter of Strikeforce being viewed for exactly what it is—a second-rate promotion.
That’s not to disparage the fighters. Not at all. Luke Rockhold is an immense talent who will be an awesome addition to the UFC middleweight division, not if, but when Strikeforce closes up shop. So will Kennedy. But they’re fighting in an organization that has lost its luster since being scooped up by Zuffa.
Despite all the “business as usual” rhetoric, the UFC gutted Strikeforce for almost all of its top talent. How could they possibly thrive, let alone survive?
Because of the lack of interest in this event, it will probably do garbage ratings. It’s simple: If no one knows it’s on, they can’t watch it.
Strikeforce has simply run its course. The Showtime deal is good through 2012. After that, Strikeforce is going away.
UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen is an interesting fellow. He’s become known as much for his relentless verbal assaults outside the cage as he is for his unyielding physical pressure inside of it. His Twitter page is filled with a plethora…
UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen is an interesting fellow. He’s become known as much for his relentless verbal assaults outside the cage as he is for his unyielding physical pressure inside of it.
His Twitter page is filled with a plethora of off-the-wall one-liners. And when someone sticks a microphone in his face, he never misses an opportunity to go after whatever unfortunate soul happens to be in his crosshairs at the moment.
He even carries around a fake championship belt and declares that he is the real champ, even though Anderson Silva made him tap out at UFC 117.
He’s so outrageous it’s sometimes difficult to figure out if he has been talking so much nonsense for so long that he actually believes it.
He’s run the gamut in his attacks. No one is immune, regardless of whether there’s a realistic chance of them ever fighting or not. At a Q&A session in Austin, Texas prior to his UFC 117 loss to Anderson Silva, Sonnen opened fire on just about everyone. He said of Georges St. Pierre:
“‘GSP, do you have a hankering for pain? GSP, did you lose a bet with God? GSP, bring your $3,000 suit, bring your $3 date and get the three-cent tan knocked off your socialist back. If you see GSP, give him that message for me.”
The socialist comment, of course, stems from GSP being French-Canadian, and Sonnen, being a “real American,” takes issue with that.
Sonnen didn’t just pick on smaller guys, though. He took on guys his own size, and bigger—much bigger. He took issue with Brock Lesnar calling himself the “baddest guy on the planet.”
“If Brock Lesnar was here right now, I’d take my boot off and throw it at him, and he’d better polish it up before he brings it back to me. Talking about he’s the baddest guy in the UFC? Brock, quit eating so many raw eggs and doing push-ups because it’s affecting your realm of reality. Are you kidding me? I’d slap you in your face, and you wouldn’t do anything.”
Those are harsh words to hurl at a man who carries around 280 pounds of high-twitch muscle fiber. But that’s just Sonnen. He’s an outlaw. Quite literally.
In early 2011 Sonnen pleaded guilty to federal money laundering charges stemming from a real estate scam where he directed the payment of $69,000 to a plumbing company owned by his mother for work that was never to be done. He faced some hefty penalties, the possibility of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine, but in the plea agreement he received only two years probation, a $10,000 fine and forfeiture of his real estate license.
For all Sonnen’s self-righteousness, he’s clearly not one who practices what he preaches. But then again, he’s an aspiring politician, and that sort of arrogance is par for the course. In 2010 Sonnen ran for the state legislature in Oregon’s 37th district, but lost the race. Like many politicians, Sonnen prescribes to a “do as I say not as I do” mentality.
But by far the most irksome topic to Chael Sonnen is Brazilian fighters. He’s taken special aim at Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, Wanderlei Silva, Vitor Belfort and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. He’s not only attacked the fighters, but the Brazilian culture, education system, economy, status in the world, etc.
It’s curious because Sonnen holds a poor record against Brazilian fighters—four losses with just a single victory. Perhaps that’s part of what fuels his disdain.
Sonnen is not everyone’s cup of tea. Some love his shtick, some hate it. Wherever one stands, though, it’s hard to argue that his mouth has not made Sonnen a fighter of interest.
Before he adopted the garrulous approach, he was just another middleweight. Now he’s must-see TV. He has toned it down as of late, perhaps because his showing in his last fight lacked creativity and seemed way too robotically rehearsed.
When Sonnen takes on Anderson Silva in a rematch at UFC 148, though, look for the words and the fists to fly because that level of smack talk cannot help but to elicit a forceful response, as evidenced by Silva’s recent tirade.
Sonnen got into Silva’s head. Sure, the champion played it cool for a long time, but the anger was just building up all this time. And that is exactly what Sonnen wanted.
As Sonnen has shown time and again, he doesn’t care if it’s true, false, outrageous or just downright insane—he’s going to say it. And even if people think it’s ridiculous, he’s learned that toeing the line between reality and delusion can be used to his benefit.
The world of MMA media recently blew up with rumors that former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia had signed with Strikeforce and would face heavyweight grand prix champion Daniel Cormier. 
The Ultimate Fighter 16 begins in September, and the coaches will be none other than