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Eddie Wineland Issues a Warning to Renan Barao: ‘That’s My Belt’

It’s been nearly seven years since Eddie Wineland captured the first-ever WEC bantamweight title, and now at UFC 161, he has the chance to reclaim it when he faces Renan Barao in the main event on June 15 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The WEC title was re-inv…

The WEC title was re-invented as the UFC bantamweight belt when the promotions merged, and the title has been held by five different men since Wineland last clutched it, but it’s something that’s never been far from his mind.

Following back-to-back wins over Scott Jorgensen and Brad Pickett, Wineland knew his name could be called to face interim bantamweight champ Barao next. On Monday he finally got the news he’d been longing to receive.

A simple text message from UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby read, “June 15. Renan Barao in Canada. Can you be there?”

It took Wineland seconds to return with an emphatic “yes.”

The downside of Wineland‘s title shot is that it means the “other” UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz is still on the sidelines recovering from two ACL surgeries in his knee. Wineland has nothing but respect for Cruz, but this is a golden opportunity to face Barao for the belt, and he’s not going to look at it as anything other than a chance to reclaim the title.

“I wish Dominick the best and I hope he gets better soon. That being said, it’s a good thing for me,” Wineland told Bleacher Report on Wednesday after his title fight was announced. “Him being injured is good for me, it was always just in the back of my head—how many more fights to do I have to win? My last two wins were over top five/top ten guys and they were pretty decisive. Even the split decision over Pickett, in my eyes it was unanimous but you never know what the judges see.”

Wineland knows Barao is the real deal, even if the tagline on his belt still technically says “interim.” Still, Wineland has faced the best of the best before and as good as Barao might be, no man is unbeatable.

“He’s for sure going to be my toughest fight to date. He’s beat the top level competition, he’s beat Pickett, he’s beat Jorgensen, he’s beat [Urijah] Faber, he beat [Michael] McDonald, those are all one-, two-, three-[ranked] guys. That being said he hasn’t fought me yet,” Wineland said.

“In his last fight, I saw some holes. Everybody has holes in their game, I have holes in my game, he has holes in his game and unfortunately for him I’m going to take advantage of that and I’m going to be bringing that belt home for sure.”

Wineland is in a rare position to capture the UFC bantamweight belt so long after he was the first WEC 135-pound champion. The way he’s looking at it, the bantamweight belt has always had his name on it, Barao is just keeping it warm for him.

“I took two top five guys and ran right through them. When I first started fighting, Keith Wisniewski was one of the first people I ever trained with and he looked at me and said ‘if you want a future in this, I think you can be one of the best fighters in the world’ and I thought he was nuts. I thought he was bat sh—t crazy and didn’t know what he was talking about. Now here we sit and we’re going to fight for an interim belt,” Wineland said.

“In my eyes, that belt is my belt. I was the first bantamweight champion, granted it was in the WEC and it wasn’t under the Zuffa organization yet, but that trail leads back to the WEC and that trail leads back to the WEC bantamweight belt. That’s my belt.”

Wineland is going to do everything in his power to reclaim the title and proudly once again call himself the best bantamweight on the planet.

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.

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UFC 161: What’s at Stake When Dan Henderson Meets Rashad Evans

When former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans meets multi-promotional former title-holder Dan Henderson at UFC 161, the two fighters won’t be competing for a belt or even a No. 1 contender’s spot. They will be battling for relevancy in a grow…

They will be battling for relevancy in a growing division.

Both Evans and Henderson have got to look at their fight as the last man standing survives—the loser may never get back to a title shot again.

Since losing the UFC light heavyweight title to Lyoto Machida at UFC 98, Rashad Evans has been in a position to battle for the belt again on a couple of notable occasions, but only one actually came to fruition. Injuries kept Evans from fighting Maurcio “Shogun” Rua when he still had the belt.

Eventually he earned a shot at former teammate Jon Jones at UFC 145.

Evans lost the fight by unanimous decision, but he was in a prime position to jump right back into the title conversation until his loss to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 156 in a vastly underwhelming performance. He could have also been in a spot where with a win he could have dropped to 185 pounds and challenged middleweight king Anderson Silva for the belt, but that also went up in smoke after his loss in early February.

Dan Henderson finds himself walking into UFC 161 in almost the exact same spot, although under different circumstances.

Six months ago, Henderson was supposed to be fighting Jon Jones for the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 151. But a knee injury forced him out of the fight and back to the sidelines, where he watched Vitor Belfort get a crack at the belt, and where he now has to watch his former training partner Chael Sonnen take on Jones in April.

Henderson had a chance to solidify his place back atop the rankings but lost a close decision to Lyoto Machida at UFC 157 just weeks ago in Anaheim. Henderson was none too happy about the judges’ call in the fight, but his record still reads loss and he’s not getting a title shot right now.

It also can’t be forgotten that Henderson is 42 years old. While he’s had some of his best performances since turning 40, it doesn’t mean he can do this forever, especially considering the new blood slowly climbing the ranks at 205 pounds.

Alexander Gustafsson will likely earn the next crack at the UFC light heavyweight title with a win over Gegard Mousasi at UFC on Fuel TV 9 in Sweden in early April, and then there’s the possibility that Daniel Cormier could win his UFC debut at UFC on Fox 7 and then drop down to 205 pounds to challenge for the belt.

Of course, there is also Lyoto Machida, who has been declared the UFC’s No. 1 contender at 205 pounds. He happens to hold wins now over both Evans and Henderson.

The list seems to be growing longer by the day. Both Evans’ and Henderson’s prospects of reaching title contention almost evaporate with a loss at UFC 161.

For Evans, a loss would mean three defeats in a row. Granted, one of those came in a title fight against Jon Jones, but rarely do fighters lose three fights in a row in the UFC and somehow work their way back to a title shot.

Patrick Cote lost his first four fights in the UFC, left the promotion and won four in a row before earning his crack at the belt at UFC 90 against Anderson Silva. Nick Diaz lost three in a row in the UFC as well, but he left the promotion following the last fight against Sean Sherk in 2006 and fought in several organizations before coming back to get his title shot at next weekend’s UFC 158 show.

A third loss in a row for Evans would be devastating and almost eliminates him from title contention in the foreseeable future, especially if Jones continues to hold the belt because they’ve already faced each other in the past.

As for Dan Henderson, his path back to at title doesn’t appear as treacherous as Evans, but a loss would almost certainly put him out of the picture for good.

Adding to this pressure-cooker situation is UFC president Dana White, who was unimpressed by both Evans and Henderson in their recent performances. White joked after Henderson and Machida fought at UFC 157 that he wished he could have turned their bout into a two-round affair.

White also commented about Evans, saying “he has lost that hunger” when speaking about his drive to be the best in the sport. Ominous comments coming from the boss, and Evans had to be listening when his name was mentioned.

The stakes are higher than ever for both Rashad Evans and Dan Henderson. For the winner, it’s back into title contention and a race towards the 205-pound gold continues. For the loser, it could mean being relegated to obscurity in the division and a battle for relevancy.

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

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Fox Sports One Features New UFC Fight Night Series, UFC Tonight and Much More

An announcement was made Tuesday that FOX Sports 1 will debut this August as the network converts Speed TV into a new all-sports broadcast with a heavy UFC presence. FOX Sports 1 (FS1) will likely serve as the network’s answer to broadcast rivals ESPN,…

An announcement was made Tuesday that FOX Sports 1 will debut this August as the network converts Speed TV into a new all-sports broadcast with a heavy UFC presence.

FOX Sports 1 (FS1) will likely serve as the network’s answer to broadcast rivals ESPN, featuring many of the sports in their original programming line-up, including NASCAR, college football, professional baseball and many UFC shows.

The UFC will debut a new Fight Night series similar to their UFC on FX and UFC on Fuel broadcasts that will typically air on Wednesday nights from 8 to 11 p.m. ET.

According to the release from FOX, UFC Fight Night will kick off on Saturday, August 17 during the network’s debut week and then the series moves to Wednesday nights. Sports Illustrated reporter Richard Deitsch was at the press conference held by FOX and provided additional details about the new UFC Fight Night schedule on FS1.

The new network will also become the home of UFC Tonight, a weekly magazine show featuring hosts Kenny Florian and Chael Sonnen that will move to FS1 from its current home on Fuel TV.

FOX Sports 1 will also be the new home for UFC on FOX and UFC pay-per-view preliminary fight broadcasts that currently air on FX.

Fourteen UFC pay-per-view preliminary shows along with the UFC on FOX preliminary fights are expected to air on the new channel starting later this year.

FOX Sports One will also carry numerous past fights and the UFC library, which contains hundreds of hours of footage and events.

One question that still remains for the new FS1 deal is the future of the The Ultimate Fighter reality show. The UFC will be moving much of their live programming to Wednesday nights, while UFC on FOX and UFC pay-per-views will stay on Saturday. The Ultimate Fighter currently airs on FX on Tuesday nights, but it’s unknown at this time if the reality show will remain on FX or shift to the FS1 channel.

UFC officials said there will be more information available at a future time regarding The Ultimate Fighter when responding to Bleacher Report on Tuesday.

FOX Sports 1 will surely be in the reality show business, however, as they are developing a new series around former boxing heavyweight champion Mike Tyson titled Being Mike Tyson, and will at some point likely feature a cameo from UFC president Dana White, who recently mentioned agreeing to appear on the show.

More details about the UFC’s involvement with FS1 will continue to develop over the next few months as well as the promotion’s place on a planned FOX Sports 2 channel that will take over for Fuel TV.

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Nevada Commission: Past Steroid Abusers Not Likely to Be Given TRT Exemption

UFC president Dana White recently made the declaration that any fighter using testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) in the promotion would soon find themselves subjected to random testing throughout their training camps to ensure no cheating was going…

White’s belief is that many of the fighters using TRT are spiking their testosterone levels during a training camp to help performance, endurance and other benefits and then making sure their testing levels are back within reason before a fight.

Most recently controversy swirled around former UFC champion Vitor Belfort when he was allowed to use TRT for his fight against Michael Bisping at UFC on FX 7 in Brazil. The UFC released an official statement after the fight stating that Belfort was using the treatment and tested within normal ranges after his bout against Bisping.

Unfortunately, Belfort‘s case falls into special circumstances because he has been previously suspended after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs, and under many of the state athletic commissions in the United States, he would struggle to receive a temporary use exemption (TUE) for TRT.

Belfort tested positive for steroids following his 2006 fight in Pride against Dan Henderson. Following the positive test, Belfort claimed the results could have happened either from injections he received from his doctor after knee surgery or from a supplement he was given at a health food store in Brazil.

His pleas of innocence fell on deaf ears that day, and the Nevada Commission handed down a 9-month suspension along with a $10,000 fine.

Because of his recorded past incident using performance enhancing drugs, Kizer says Belfort or any athlete under the same rules would struggle mightily to be approved for a TRT exemption in a state like Nevada.

“I don’t see Vitor Belfort getting a TRT exemption from us,” Kizer told Bleacher Report. “I really don’t and I feel kind of bad for him in some ways because if he has learned from his mistakes and now he’s trying to do it the right way and his levels are low with the treatment good for him and I hope he is doing that.”

Kizer points at a fighter like Chael Sonnen when speaking about the hoops a fighter with a past suspension on their record for performance enhancing drugs would jump through to gain an exemption in Nevada.

Sonnen never tested positive for steroids like Belfort, but he was suspended in 2010 after his testosterone levels came back over the legal limit for his fight against Anderson Silva at UFC 117. Sonnen was a user of TRT at that time and continues to be to this day, but when he applied for his exemption in 2012 before his rematch with Silva he had to appear before a formal hearing in Nevada to be able to use the product prior to his fight.

“He handled himself well and some people handle themselves well,” said Kizer. “Some guys are going to have to jump through some additional hoops, but even Chael wasn’t a prior steroid (user) that could have caused the deficiency like Vitor.”

Sonnen was approved and his testing levels were fine for the fight, but Kizer says that the former middleweight contender was the perfect example of someone who may not have ever been trying to cheat, but because he was suspended it made it that much harder for him to gain an exemption the next time around.

The process for a fighter like Belfort or any other past competitor who has tested positive for a banned substance would be the same or even harder. Kizer says there’s no guarantee that past steroid use is to blame for Belfort‘s low testosterone levels, but obviously that stigma is attached to him because he has tested positive for banned substances in the past.

Right or wrong, that positive test will haunt Belfort for the rest of his career.

“The rules are the rules and you have to draw the line somewhere,” said Kizer.

Belfort‘s next fight will be in May back in his home country of Brazil when he faces former Strikeforce champion Luke Rockhold at UFC on FX 8. It’s unknown at this time if he will continue to use the TRT treatments ahead of that fight or not.

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.

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Chael Sonnen Is the Smartest Man in the Room in All of MMA

In a rare time where there are no UFC events coming up on the weekend, leave it to light heavyweight title contender Chael Sonnen to make everyone look in his direction. And what a brilliant stroke of genius it was. With more than 280,000 followe…

With more than 280,000 followers on Twitter and not having said a personal word on the account since Saturday when he made a brief comment presumably about Wanderlei Silva, Sonnen unleashed a tirade aimed at a pair of unnamed MMA journalists on Monday that had everyone on the social networking site buzzing.

Sonnen ranted for 18 tweets throughout Monday afternoon as every writer who has ever attached MMA to their name wondered if the “Gangster from West Linn” had his sights set on them.

The guessing games continued throughout the day as Sonnen‘s name popped up dozens of times on Twitter, Facebook and every MMA message board in existence.

Now, Sonnen‘s feelings about this particular pair of journalists were likely very real. He felt the need to anonymously put them on notice that he was targeting them for detonation. The ripple effect throughout the MMA media, however, showed the true power that Chael Sonnen holds over all of us.

If anyone ever asks why is Chael Sonnen in the UFC 159 main event against Jon Jones when he hasn’t fought at light heavyweight in more than five years, look no further than Monday for evidence.

If anyone is curious why every single thing Chael Sonnen says as an analyst on UFC Tonight later pops up as news on any number of MMA websites, look no further than Monday for evidence.

Chael Sonnen is just the smartest man in the room in the entire sport of mixed martial arts.

Monday was just the latest and clearest case of the Chael Sonnen phenomenon that continues to sweep MMA every time he talks, tweets or approaches a press conference.

Over the past few years, Sonnen has managed to become one of the Top Five draws in pay-per-view buys without ever holding a UFC title (although his unofficial reign, according to Sonnen, lasted for nearly a year). He’s actually the only fighter in the Top Five that hasn’t been a champion (the others are Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, Jon Jones and Rashad Evans).

He became a fixture during UFC on Fuel pre and post shows for almost every pay-per-view broadcast, and then eventually became such a popular analyst that Fuel TV revamped UFC Tonight and offered him a full time gig as co-host alongside Kenny Florian.

His Q&A sessions with fans are always among the most jam-packed in the industry, and he’s one of the most requested athletes for interviews on the UFC roster. Sonnen is a regular on popular radio shows like The Jim Rome Show, where MMA fighters rarely find a slot outside of major fights coming up.

According to Sonnen‘s manager Mike Roberts of MMA Inc. who spoke to Bleacher Report on Monday, the Oregon native’s stock isn’t just rising inside the sport, but outside as well. Opportunities are flourishing at every turn, along with sponsorships tnat few athletes in MMA are getting these days.

Sonnen truly does have the Howard Stern effect in mixed martial arts. Everybody wants to see what he’ll say next, no matter whether they love him or hate him. They tune in to see him, and that’s all that counts.

Even those people that slam Sonnen, saying he hasn’t earned his title shot or his talk is played out. You’re still tagging him on Twitter, you’re still posting about him on message boards and you’re still watching him on TV.

There may not be another fighter in all of MMA that can demand that kind of attention.

Sonnen has capitalized on every part of the mixed martial arts scope from fighting to title shots to broadcasting to sponsorships to social networking to popularity. It’s paying off in every sense of the phrase.

Whether he’s talking about his upcoming fight against Jon Jones or how the Olympics screwed up by dropping wrestling from the 2020 games, Sonnen speaks and we all listen.

He’s got a career already lined up after fighting and he’s far from being finished in the cage.

So the next time someone thinks Chael Sonnen is just saying crazy things to get a reaction—whether those messages are aimed at Jon Jones, Anderson Silva or an anonymous journalist—chances are there is method to his madness and he’s laughing all the way to the bank.

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report.

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Soa “The Hulk” Palelei Signs Multi-Fight Deal to Return to UFC

An eight-fight winning streak and a tireless social networking campaign have finally landed Soa “The Hulk” Palelei back in the UFC. The Australian heavyweight also had some help from his new management team at Paradigm MMA, who just signed Palelei to a…

An eight-fight winning streak and a tireless social networking campaign have finally landed Soa “The Hulk” Palelei back in the UFC.

The Australian heavyweight also had some help from his new management team at Paradigm MMA, who just signed Palelei to a contract recently, and now he finds himself back in the UFC.

Palelei had a brief single fight with the UFC in 2007, losing to Eddie Sanchez by TKO, and did not return to the promotion after that moment.

Since then Palelei has racked up a 10-1 record overall, including the eight straight wins of late with the only loss during that streak coming by way of first-round defeat to former Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix champion Daniel Cormier.

“I’m thankful to Dana White and Joe Silva for giving me this opportunity to come back to the UFC to showcase my skills,” Palelei said via a press release from Paradigm MMA on Monday. “With determination, hard work and a great team, I’m happy to say that today I have signed with the UFC. I look forward to competing in the best organization in the world.”

Palelei has been on a long campaign via Twitter to hopefully catch the attention of the UFC and get another shot in the organization.

Since his one fight in the promotion, Palelei has worked tirelessly to earn his way back and now he will have his chance with a newly inked four-fight deal.

Following the loss to Cormier in 2010, Palelei went on to win his next eight in a row, finishing seven of them by first-round knockout or TKO.

Most recently, Palelei dispatched of former UFC heavyweight Sean McCorkle by first-round TKO after landing heavy shots early in the fight and then finishing the Indiana-based fighter with strikes on the ground.

There has been no official word on when Palelei will make his return to the UFC or an opponent for his first fight back.

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report

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