Author: By Duane Finley

There is a ton of activity and energy floating across the mat space at Jackson/Winkeljohn’s brand new state-of-the-art facility for a Monday morning, but no one is more animated than Dominic Waters. Granted, he’s got competition in the jazzed up collective occupying the gym that morning, but The Ultimate Fighter alum has them all beat cold.With Holly Holm tipping the MMA world on its head by starching women’s bantamweight superstar Ronda Rousey with a head kick to take championship gold in epic fashion less than 48 hours earlier, the entire Albuquerque collective is abuzz w … Read the Full Article Here

If there is an unspoken rule about fighters stepping into the Octagon only a few times a year, Neil Magny didn’t get that particular memo. Where the majority of athletes under the UFC banner are prone to squaring off with an opponent two or three times a year, The Ultimate Fighter alum has been on an entirely different schedule. Magny tied the promotional record by winning all five of his showings in 2014, and the 28-year-old wasted zero time carrying that same approach into this year’s campaign as well.By August, he was already entering his third contest of 2015 and carrying a s … Read the Full Article Here

In a strange way, it seems fitting Diego Sanchez is the last man standing from the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter.That’s not taking anything away from the handful of fighters who went on to memorable careers and those like Forrest Griffin, who would not only win a title but be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, because those competitors demanded attention in their own right. Yet, even in a group that wasn’t lacking in the personality department, the young New Mexico native stood out from the rest.There was just something different about “The Nightmare.” Fol … Read the Full Article Here

By their very nature, fighter are a nomadic breed. Training and the effort to expand one’s skill set often requires athletes to set out into the world to find coaches and fellow fighters who will help them push toward the next level of their progression. Even if they can find what they need within a comfortable distance, competing in the sport they’ve committed to will undoubtedly take them into foreign lands to exercise their craft.Yet, before a fighter can shift into a different global gear, there are certain things that must be mastered in the place they call home. In that reg … Read the Full Article Here

Dan Henderson isn’t one for labels.The former Olympian turned mixed martial artist turned multi-divisional knockout artist shrugs off words like “legend” and “pioneer,” choosing rather to focus on things in the here and now. Granted, the California-based middleweight can’t fully escape acknowledging how much of an impact he’s had on the sport he loves and the generations of hungry fighters that have come up in his wake, but even in doing so he cops to influence with a tremendous amount of modesty in tow.Henderson simply loves to what he does and woul … Read the Full Article Here

The chip on Anthony Birchak’s shoulder won’t be going anywhere any time soon. The Arizona-born bantamweight is a highly touted fighter on the rise in the 135-pound ranks, but “El Toro” knows the larger chunk of the spotlight has yet to find its way to where he’s standing. And while the 29-year-old is as grounded as they come in the fight game, that doesn’t stop Birchak from striving to reach the top. The LutaMMA leader has been a champion for other organizations and is putting everything into his climb to win gold under the UFC banner. He knows it is going … Read the Full Article Here