Author: Guilherme Cruz

Ben Askren is no longer the Bellator welterweight kingpin, and the new champion will be crowned in 2014.

Douglas Lima and Rick Hawn, the last two tournament winners, will meet the next year in a five-round fight for the 170-pound title, but the Brazilian is still surprised by Bellator’s decision to release Askren.

“I was kind of (surprised) because he was the undefeated champion and a really tough fighter,” Lima told MMAFighting.com. “But he didn’t sell his fights because of his fighting style and I think that’s really important for the promotion. I believe that’s the reason why Bellator didn’t want to fight that much for him.”

Askren told The MMA Hour he wants to join the UFC to fight the best in the world, but UFC president Dana White is not interested.

“I don’t know if it was good or bad for him (to leave Bellator),” Lima said. “I don’t have anything against him and I wish him the best. But I know UFC will sign him.”

Lima’s only loss over the last 14 bouts was to Askren at Bellator 64, and he doesn’t sound upset with the fact that he won’t be able to avenge the loss.

“It doesn’t matter for me if he’s in or out of Bellator,” he said. “Either way, I’m going to fight for the title. That’s my goal. Whoever it is, I’ll be ready.

“It’s not my fault that he’s out of Bellator and I just want my shot at the title. People can say whatever they want. They can say that (Askren) is the real champion after I beat Hawn, but that doesn’t bother me at all. I just want to beat whoever they put in front of me.”

Still recovering from a hand surgery, Lima watched Rick Hawn’s knockout win over Ron Keslar at the season 9 welterweight tournament final on Nov. 22.

Riding a four-fight win streak with four knockouts, Lima anticipates a good match-up with the fellow tournament winner.

“I expected a more competitive fight,” he said. “I didn’t know much about Keslar but I saw that he’s tough and has good jiu-jitsu. But Hawn was the favorite and showed it why in the fight. It was a beautiful knockout and made me more excited to fight for the title against him. It’s going to be a great fight for the fans, I can assure you that.”

“My dream is to win that title,” Lima continued. “I’ve lost my first attempt and that made me hungrier. I won’t stop now. I’m a man on a mission and I will accomplish it. It’s a dream for me. I’m the MFC champion and I want to do the same at Bellator. I will bring this title home for myself, my family and fans.”

Raphael Assuncao is in a “difficult position” in the UFC bantamweight division.

Undefeated since dropping to the 135-pound weight class with five victories, the Brazilian feels he deserves a shot at the title, but would accept a fight at UFC Fight Night 35 in Duluth, Ga., to “stay busy”.

“That’s an idea,” Assuncao told MMAFighting.com. “I live in Atlanta and I feel I’m in a good position to fight for the title against the winner of Dominick Cruz vs. Renan Barao, but they will fight in February, so they probably wouldn’t be able to fight again until July.

“I’m in a difficult position right now. If they give me a fight in January, I want a title shot next. I don’t know if I just wait for a title shot or if I fight to stay busy. I have to sit with my team and my bosses to make a decision.”

Assuncao has scored a pair of wins over top-ranked opponents since moving down to bantamweight, defeating T.J. Dillashaw and Mike Easton, and he has no idea who he could fight now.

All four bantamweights ranked above him are set to fight each other, with Cruz fighting Barao and Urijah Faber meeting Michael McDonald. Ranked No. 4 in the UFC, Assuncao is not excited with the idea of fighting Eddie Wineland, who is coming off a loss to Barao.

“Urijah and McDonald will fight now, but they already fought for the title and lost,” he said. “Wineland just fought for the title and lost, so I’m not interested in this fight. It doesn’t make much sense. He’s well ranked, but he’s coming off a loss.”

Assuncao is waiting for the UFC to decide his future, and he expects to fight for the bantamweight title next year. He picks his countrymen to win, and wants to challenge him in Brazil.

“I believe Barao will win this fight,” he said, when asked about his predictions the UFC 169 main event on Feb. 1 in New Jersey. “Dominick hasn’t fought for a while. A knee surgery is always complicated and he had two. I think it’s going the distance, and Barao wins it.”

The last time Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira won two fights in a row was in 2008, when the Pride star became the interim UFC heavyweight champion against Tim Sylvia. The Brazilian veteran wants to restart his career in 2014, and he has a target.

Following a submission loss to Fabricio Werdum at TUF: Brazil 2 Finale, “Minotauro” believes TUF winner Roy Nelson could be his next opponent. Nelson, who last fought in October, is coming off back-to-back decision losses to Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic, stopping his 3-fight win streak.

“I’m totally interested in this fight,” Nogueira told MMAFighting.com. “He’s a tough athlete and is always fighting the tops. I would like to fight him. He has a heavy hand and would be a good challenge.”

“Minotauro” is still recovering from the injury sustained in his last fight with Werdum in Fortaleza, Brazil, and expects to start his camp in January.

“I’m not training hard yet, but I’m always training something with my coaches,” he said. “But I won’t be able to train hard before January. I want to be back to the cage by March or April.”

While he can’t fully return to trainings, “Minotauro” and his twin brother, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, focus on spreading their gym throughout Brazil.

“I’ll be recovered from my injury by the end of the year,” he said. “Ligament injuries require six months to recover, so I can’t come back before that. So before I’m able to return to training, I’m focused in my gym.

“We’re developing a whole new methodology. I’m going to all the gyms now to teach our methodology with my brother and our trainers Luiz Carlos Dorea, Bruno Frazatto, Everaldo Penco, Rafael Cavalcante, Eduardo Pachu and Vander Valverde.”

Team Nogueira became a successful business in Brazil, and “Minotauro” expects to make more money with his brand next year.

“We have 16 gyms today, and we’ll end 2014 with 51 gyms around Brazil,” he said. “We also have Team Nogueira in Dubai, Zurich and San Diego. We have 7,000 students today, and 35 percent of them are women. We expect to have around 25 thousand students by the end of 2014.

“It’s a huge success. We created a big martial arts school that will help the future of the sport in Brazil.”

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Vitor Belfort needed three consecutive head kick knockouts to earn another shot at the UFC middleweight title, and he still has some new tricks to show.

UFC president Dana White announced that Belfort will likely return to the cage against the winner of Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva, and “The Phenom” won’t root for anyone at UFC 168, on Dec. 28.

“I’m just waiting for the winner,” Belfort said. “I don’t create expectations because I can get frustrated in the end. I’ve earned my shot at the title and I will fight whoever wins this fight. I just want to get in there and hear them say ‘the new middleweight champion’. I have a goal. I will defeat the champion and get the title.”

Belfort fought for the 185-pound title on February 2011, but was stopped by Silva with a front kick in the first round. A former teammate of “The Spider”, Belfort has some advices for Weidman.

“Weidman can’t let Anderson play his game,” he said. “Anderson is the type of fighter that will make you play his game, and Weidman needs to fight his fight. I will be watching this fight, and I don’t care who I’m fighting next.

“I’ll be even better when I return to the Octagon. I know it’s hard to believe that I can get even better than this, but I will. I’ve been training hard, and there are a lot of things that I haven’t done yet. My best is yet to come.”

Belfort won’t let the fact that he lost to Silva change his mindset going into a new fight, in case Silva beats Weidman at UFC 168.

“It’s important that you accept the facts,” he said. “He surprised me with a kick, and a true champion needs to accept what happened. We can’t control the results, but I can control what I will do about it. The last fight doesn’t mean that the next fight will end the same way.”

Weidman could bring a new challenge to the table against Belfort, who hasn’t been taken down in any of his last wins. The Blackzilian fighter isn’t worried about the possibility of fighting Weidman on the ground, though.

“My ground game is getting better and better since I started training with Gilbert Burns,” Belfort said. “And I don’t even need to talk about my wrestling since I’m working with the Michael Jordan of Wrestling, Kenny Monday. I’ve been working a lot in both areas.”

Undefeated when fighting in Brazil, with recent wins over Michael Bisping, Luke Rockhold and Dan Henderson, Belfort is confident that he will fight for the gold in front of his countrymen.

“This fight will be in a soccer stadium,” he said. “Whoever wins, I’m sure we can sell out Maracana or any other soccer stadium in Brazil. It would be really interesting.

“I know the UFC will come up with the best idea. They are really focused in Brazil right now. Globo is offering great fights for the Brazilians. I just want to enjoy my training. I will train focused on both, and focused on working my abilities.”

The UFC on FOX 10 card is shaping up fast, and Donald Cerrone is the latest addition to the event at the United Center in Chicago, Ill. The UFC announced on Saturday that the former WEC lightweight title challenger has verbally agreed to return to the Octagon to face Brazilian veteran Adriano Martins on Jan. 25.

Coming off an impressive submission victory over Evan Dunham at UFC 167, Cerrone (21-6, 1 no-contest) looks to win back-to-back fights in the UFC for the first time since 2012, when he scored consecutive wins over Jeremy Stephens and Melvin Guillard, after going 2-2 in his last four appearances.

Martins (25-6), a former Jungle Fight lightweight champion, won the “submission of the night” bonus in his Octagon debut, when he tapped Daron Cruickshank with a kimura at UFC Fight Night 32 in Goiania, Brazil. Riding a six-fight win streak, Martins has 14 stoppage victories over his MMA career with 11 submissions.

UFC on FOX 10 is headlined by the lightweight contest featuring former UFC champion Ben Henderson and former Strikeforce champion Josh Thomson.

John Lineker could have earned a shot at the flyweight title with his fourth consecutive victory inside the Octagon, but the fact that he missed weight in three of his five UFC fights played against him.

Lineker scored three knockouts in a row in 2013, the last one over Phil Harris at UFC Fight Night 30 in Manchester, England, and he guarantees you won’t see him miss weight anymore.

To make that happen, he started working with Mike Dolce.

“He already sent me the diet and I started it,” Lineker told MMAFighting.com. “I loved it. I don’t eat anything that isn’t good for my body, like soda, sugar, pasta. It’s a completely different diet with lots of fruits and natural stuff. It’s really cool.”

Seven days after starting the diet, the flyweight contender has lost 11 pounds.

“I was used to eat anything, so it was tough in the beginning. But I’m getting used to it already,” he said. “I always weighed around 163 pounds, but I’m already at 152 after one week of the diet. I feel great. I’m losing weight easily, and I’m not even training hard yet.”

Lineker called his win over Harris “one of my best performances in the UFC”, and he’s upset with the fact that he lost a big opportunity with his weight issues.

“It’s nice that Dana White said I’m getting closer to the title, but I’m sad that I couldn’t make weight again,” he said. “I don’t know what happened. Everything was great, but my body completely stopped sweating. But now I’m working with Mike Dolce and everything will work. One more win, and I’ll fight for the title.”

The UFC hasn’t announced Lineker’s next fight yet, and he wants to be part of the UFC Fight Night 36 card in Jaragua do Sul, Brazil, on Feb. 15.

“I’m just waiting for their call,” he said. “I’d love to fight in Jaragua do Sul, but that’s not up to me. Let’s see what they want next for me.”

To get ready for his next bout, “Hands of Stone” will finish his training camp at American Top Team in Florida.

“The idea is that I’ll go there with one month left for my next fight,” he said. “With this new diet, which I already can feel the change, you’ll see a new Lineker inside the Octagon. I’ll bring the belt to Brazil. I’ll fight anyone to get there.”