UFC 137 is just over two weeks away, so to get your blood pumping, check out the recently released extended trailer, which features not only a look into the upcoming welterweight title fight between Georges St. Pierre and Carlos Condit, but a welterweight clash between B.J. Penn and Nick Diaz and the heavyweight slug fest between Cheick Kongo and Matt Mitrione. Featuring 12 fights including Mirko Cro Cop vs. Roy Nelson, Donald Cerrone vs. Dennis Siver, and Scott Jorgensen vs. Jeff Curran, UFC 137 is looking like on hell of a card, barring any last minute injuries.
A few notes:
UFC 137 is just over two weeks away, so to get your blood pumping, check out the recently released extended trailer, which features not only a look into the upcoming welterweight title fight between Georges St. Pierre and Carlos Condit, but a welterweight clash between B.J. Penn and Nick Diaz and the heavyweight slug fest between Cheick Kongo and Matt Mitrione. Featuring 12 fights including Mirko Cro Cop vs. Roy Nelson, Donald Cerrone vs. Dennis Siver, and Scott Jorgensen vs. Jeff Curran, UFC 137 is looking like on hell of a card, barring any last minute injuries.
A few notes:
-GSP believes he will finish Carlos Condit, and says it with the conviction of a man who’s last 4 fights have gone to decision (In related news, Condit has already stated that if he doesn’t finish GSP he will likely lose the decision).
-Nick Diaz and B.J. Penn have some kick-ass highlight reels.
-Mitrione believes his chin combined with his pressure and punching power will lead him to victory over Cheick Kongo. Just so you know Matt, Cheick has a pretty decent chin of his own.
You can say what you want about Dana White when it comes to title fights, but the man never beats around the bush when it comes to his fighters. In a recent interview, “The Baldfather” spoke in typically frank fashion when asked about former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s claims to pursue boxing at the end of his UFC contract on the heels of his fourth round submission loss to current champ Jon Jones at UFC 135. A few highlights from the interview:
On boxing promoter Bob Arum’s claims that the UFC underpays their fighters: “You hear [boxing promoter] Bob [Arum] out there: ‘Yeah, they don’t pay their guys anything.’ Rampage got paid for his last fight, trust me. A lot of money. Bob Arum pays guys $600 on his cards. We’ve never paid a guy that, ever. We’ve only been around ten years, Bob’s been promoting fights for 120 years”
You can say what you want about Dana White when it comes to title fights, but the man never beats around the bush when it comes to his fighters. In a recent interview, “The Baldfather” spoke in typically frank fashion when asked about former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s claims to pursue boxing at the end of his UFC contract on the heels of his fourth round submission loss to current champ Jon Jones at UFC 135. A few highlights from the interview:
On boxing promoter Bob Arum’s claims that the UFC underpays their fighters: “You hear [boxing promoter] Bob [Arum] out there: ‘Yeah, they don’t pay their guys anything.’ Rampage got paid for his last fight, trust me. A lot of money. Bob Arum pays guys $600 on his cards. We’ve never paid a guy that, ever. We’ve only been around ten years, Bob’s been promoting fights for 120 years”
On Rampage’s belief that people won’t run from him in the boxing ring: “He’ll find out when he starts boxing that [running from opponents is] pretty much the game these days. The game is: Let’s step in there and do everything we can do avoid a fight, so we can get on to the next payday. No matter where you are, no matter what you do, you’re always going to have guys chirping about something.”
On Rampage’s thought process in general: “Rampage thought the movie business was the answer to all his fucking dreams and that didn’t work out too good. The pay over there wasn’t what he thought it was, the pay over here was a lot better. A lot better. The grass is always greener until it’s not there any more, and then you realize you made a lot of mistakes and you should have done things differently.”
DW makes some interesting points here, and given Rampage’s history of mental…let’s say shakiness following title fights, it’s hard to judge whether he is truly serious about moving to boxing or just blowing smoke up our ass. What do you guys think? Is Jackson really serious about this move, or is it just a case of his infamous post-loss blues?
Despite being the slight underdog heading in, IFL and WEC vet Adam Lynn made quick work of Jonathan Goulet’s hairstylist, Curtis Demarce, shrugging off the younger man’s combinations before unleashing a vicious short elbow to turn off his lights. The best part is that you can see Lynn setting up the strike and throwing a tester out there just moments before he finds his range. And he makes sure that his first strike is a good one, clearly trying to earn a spot in our first punch hall of fame. But it’s first PUNCH Adam. Learn to read the fine print.
(If Jesse Ventura ever sees this, someone out there is going to get sued. / Props to MMAFighting.)
As a long time UFC fan, I’ve recently noticed that their marketing team has seemingly taken a break from using corny phrases to label their events. In fact, the last UFC pay-per-view to not be named after the fighters in the main event was back at UFC 125: Resolution, which featured the eventual draw between, you guessed it, Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. You just don’t see that kind of irony everyday.
UFC 136 was actually able to provide us with closure, however — more closure in fact than any card in quite a while. Not only did Edgar vindicate himself in triumphant fashion, but Jose Aldo proved to many of his critics that his gas tank is not an issue, Kenny Florian proved that he will never, ever, win a title fight, and Chael Sonnen proved that ring rust is for the weak. But now, we look to the future, and more importantly, try to predict it for the weekend’s big winners. So if you think our future match-ups are garbage, be sure to let us know in the comments section below.
(If Jesse Ventura ever sees this, someone out there is going to get sued. / Props to MMAFighting.)
As a long time UFC fan, I’ve recently noticed that their marketing team has seemingly taken a break from using corny phrases to label their events. In fact, the last UFC pay-per-view to not be named after the fighters in the main event was back at UFC 125: Resolution, which featured the eventual draw between, you guessed it, Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. You just don’t see that kind of irony everyday.
UFC 136 was actually able to provide us with closure, however — more closure in fact than any card in quite a while. Not only did Edgar vindicate himself in triumphant fashion, but Jose Aldo proved to many of his critics that his gas tank is not an issue, Kenny Florian proved that he will never, ever, win a title fight, and Chael Sonnen proved that ring rust is for the weak. But now, we look to the future, and more importantly, try to predict it for the weekend’s big winners. So if you think our future match-ups are garbage, be sure to let us know in the comments section below.
Frankie Edgar: There weren’t many of us out there who picked Edgar to finish Maynard in such decisive fashion, let alone with strikes. But with his brilliant come from behind win, Edgar showcased yet another ever improving aspect of his game, and has emphatically earned his spot in the pound-for-pound rankings, though maybe not as high up as Dana would think. Though it seems Gilbert Melendez is destined for the next shot, we think the winner of the Ben Henderson/Clay Guida match deserves it just as much, if not more. Henderson presents many of the same challenges to Edgar as Maynard did, so it would be interesting to see if he would fare any better. And the thought of seeing Edgar and Guida bounce around like they had just tasted sugar for the first time is enough to give us an epileptic seizure.
Jose Aldo: I may be in the minority here, but I wasn’t exactly blown away by Aldo’s performance against “Kenflo” this past weekend. Yes, his takedown defense looked great, but let’s not forget that wrestling has never been Florian’s strong suit. Chad Mendes, on the other hand, has absolutely dominated past opponents with his wrestling, and his stand up is improving by the day. If he can get inside on Aldo, we could be seeing a very different kind of riddle for Aldo to solve. But outside of Mendes and a possible future rematch with Mark Hominick, there don’t seem to be many featherweight match-ups at the moment that spark a lot of interest. Lightweight however, is an entirely different story…
Chael Sonnen: You have to be one arrogant son of a bitch to think that you cannot only hand pick your future opponent’s, but pick the day on which you will fight them as well. Luckily, Chael Sonnen’s arrogance is beginning to take on it’s own persona, and it’s getting harder and harder to disagree with the guy. He dominated a game Brian Stann despite being away from the octagon for over a year, and he made it look easy. Dana White has admitted it would be foolish not to book this rematch, and for once we’re in agreement with “The Baldfather.” Some people are arguing for a Dan Henderson rematch, given he gets past Shogun, but considering that fight is being held at light heavyweight, we don’t really see why the winner would necessarily deserve it over Sonnen, especially since Shogun clearly has no middleweight aspirations. Book it Dana…book it and they will come.
Joe Lauzon: It took “J-Lau” less than a minute to end Melvin Guillard’s hopes of getting the next lightweight title shot and remind us of why he is one of the most dangerous guys in the division. Though his cardio has long been questionable, there’s no doubting the kid’s killer instinct, and it would be nice to see him put together a nice win streak for once. Giving him a crack at the winner of Siver/Cerrone or Dos Anjos/Tibau would really help thin the herd of potential contenders, and that is one thing the lightweight division could use. Another option, and perhaps the one with the biggest potential for fireworks, would be Nate Diaz. This is of course based on the assumption that Nate Diaz decides to hang out at lightweight for a while, and who knows with that guy.
Demian Maia: Maia’s victory over Jorge Santiago was about as typical as could be expected. It showcased his well known ability to control a fighter on the ground while highlighting the fact that his stand up still has a ways to go. Matching him up against someone like Alan Belcher would really let us know where exactly he stands in the middleweight division, but the grappling fanatic in me would really like to see how he’d fare against someone like Rousimar Palhares, who’s striking is quickly becoming as tenacious as his ground game.
Anthony Pettis: After being wrestlefucked by Clay Guida in his UFC debut, the final WEC lightweight champion seemed eager to prove that he is constantly improving upon his weaknesses with a takedown oriented victory over Jeremy Stephens. A fight against someone equally well rounded, like Jim Miller, would be a nice measuring stick for Pettis, as would a match against the resurgent Sam Stout. Or if we really wanted to see how far his wrestling is coming, we could wake Gray Maynard up and throw him in “Showtime’s” direction.
Oh, and can someone throw Jorge Santiago a fricken bone? The poor guy has had about the worst run of luck in the UFC that I can remember, and I’d really just love to see him pull off one of these again.
We’ll let you decide the loser’s fates in the comment section…choose wisely.
For those of you who heard about Bas Rutten’s new series launching on FUELTV and thought it was some sort of Bully Beatdownrip off, then this new teaser trailer should ease you worries. Described as a “comedic, street fight survival series,” Punk Paybackpremiers Nov 2nd and from what I gathered is entirely devoted to continuing the awesomeness that we have been devoid of since “El Guapo” released his series of self defense videos. It’s safe to say that nothing has made me want a 3D television more than the possibility of seeing Mr. Rutten kick some 17 year old kid in the balls.
Check out an extended preview of the show after the jump.
For those of you who heard about Bas Rutten’s new series launching on FUELTV and thought it was some sort of Bully Beatdownrip off, then this new teaser trailer should ease you worries. Described as a “comedic, street fight survival series,” Punk Paybackpremiers Nov 2nd and from what I gathered is entirely devoted to continuing the awesomeness that we have been devoid of since “El Guapo” released his series of self defense videos. It’s safe to say that nothing has made me want a 3D television more than the possibility of seeing Mr. Rutten kick some 17 year old kid in the balls.
Below, we have a little more in depth look at the show, and by “in depth” I mean clips of Bas headbutting and kneeing groins on a loop.
If you can correctly guess how many spleens and/or kidneys Bas breaks over the course of the first season, we will give the names of the poor men’s families so you can offer your condolences. And maybe a shirt.
