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Rory MacDonald Says He’ll Fight Any Man in the UFC, but What About GSP?

There is little question that Rory MacDonald is one of the brightest shining stars in the UFC’s welterweight division, if not the entire UFC. At just 22 years old, the British Columbia native already finds himself nearing welterweight contention, and while a win over Che Mills at UFC 145 later this month doesn’t sound all that impressive, it might just be enough to thrust him headlong into the title mix.

Mills may seem like a step backwards for MacDonald, and that’s true in just about every way. Mills has one fight in the UFC and is literally an unknown fighter, and yet he’ll step into the cage for the co-main event of one of the biggest pay-per-views of the year. That seems a little strange to me.

But, to hear MacDonald tell it, he doesn’t really care who the opponent is, because he’ll fight anyone the UFC puts in front of him:

I’ll honestly fight whoever is put in front of me right now. That means Mike Pyle, Che Mills or Carlos Condit. It doesn’t make a difference to me. I’m confident of beating every man currently competing in the 170-pound division, and that’s the truth. I’m ready for them all.

There’s one name curiously omitted from that list of names, isn’t there? Where is Georges St-Pierre? You know, the UFC welterweight champion and the guy MacDonald will ostensibly face if he secures a title shot at some point in 2012?

I understand MacDonald’s omission of St-Pierre’s name. I don’t believe there’s much of a chance that MacDonald will face St-Pierre. Not now, not ever. They’re training partners, and MacDonald uprooted his life to move to Montreal and train with the best welterweight in the world. That sounds like an American Kickboxing Academy situation to me.

If MacDonald gets past Mills—and I fully expect him to do just that with relative ease—he’ll have some tough decisions to make. You can’t say you’ll fight anyone when you won’t fight the champion in your division, so that means he’ll need to vacate the division and head north or south.

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UFC 147: Brian Stann Says Chael Sonnen Will Beat Anderson Silva

Brian Stann is no stranger to Chael Sonnen’s fighting skills. The Marine and American hero was thoroughly dismantled by Sonnen at UFC 136 in one of the best performances of Sonnen’s career.So when Stann makes a prediction for Sonnen’s second crack at m…

Brian Stann is no stranger to Chael Sonnen’s fighting skills. The Marine and American hero was thoroughly dismantled by Sonnen at UFC 136 in one of the best performances of Sonnen’s career.

So when Stann makes a prediction for Sonnen’s second crack at middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva—a bout that headlines a soccer stadium show in Rio de Janeiro this summer—we should probably sit back and listen. Stann appeared on UFC Tonight last night to give his thoughts on the bout:

I think that Chael Sonnen takes it. There are a lot of factors that are going to play into that. Just similar to when I fought Chael, I think he’s particularly a very, very difficult match up for Anderson Silva. Just due to the years and years of difference in grappling and how physical Chael is when he’s on top. We’re going to have to see some new techniques from Anderson that he wasn’t able to showcase in his first fight. But, if Chael performs the way he did against Bisping, he could be in for a long night against Anderson.

There are many people in the industry who feel the same way Stann does, including my colleague Jonathan Snowden.

Me? I’m not sure what I think.

I do believe that Sonnen has the best chance of any middleweight in the world to beat Silva. He has the tools and the mindset to go in and take the fight to Silva. He’s not afraid of Silva’s mystique like so many opponents “The Spider” has faced during his UFC tenure. He’s proven that he can go in the cage and take the fight to Silva for well over 20 minutes. That’s a special thing.

But like Stann said in the quote above, it’s going to depend on which version of Chael shows up. If the Sonnen from the first Silva fight and the Stann massacre shows up, Silva could very well lose his title this summer. But if Sonnen performs the way he did against Bisping? I’d wager even Sonnen himself wouldn’t give himself much of a chance of winning the belt.

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Dana White Accepts Challenge from Former MLS Soccer Star

Remember a couple of weeks ago when Dana White said that soccer was the least-talented sport on earth?Let me refresh your memory.I’m not a big hockey fan. But I respect how talented you have to be to play hockey. Soccer? That’s a whole othe…

Remember a couple of weeks ago when Dana White said that soccer was the least-talented sport on earth?

Let me refresh your memory.

I’m not a big hockey fan. But I respect how talented you have to be to play hockey. Soccer? That’s a whole other ball. Can’t stand soccer. It’s the least-talented sport on Earth. There’s a reason three-year-olds can play soccer.

I noted in my story that this claim was ludicrous. Dana is a passionate guy and speaks from the heart, but he was dead wrong on this one.

Former Major League Soccer star Jimmy Conrad also took issue with White’s comments. Conrad, if you don’t know, used to play center back for Chivas USA. He was a pretty good footballer, at least from the American side, and was named to the equivalent of the MLS All-Pro Team on four separate occasions.

Conrad issued an open challenge to White, which can be viewed in the video above:

Have you ever even played soccer, Dana? Can you pass a ball, like to a teammate, instead of some guy in the 3rd row? Can you run at top speed, while holding off a defender, and aiming for the corner of the goal being guarded by a massive 6’4″ goal keeper? Yeah, probably not.

So listen, here’s what I’m going to do. Because I like you, I’m going to give you the opportunity to join me and a few friends for a game of soccer. Since you believe playing soccer requires no talent, I’m sure you’ll be the star. Unless you’re scared. Well let me know. I look forward to hearing from you.

To White’s credit, he immediately accepted the challenge via Twitter. Much like the time White promised to base jump off Mandalay Bay if UFC 100 did 1.5 million pay per view buys, we don’t know if he will actually show up. He’s a busy man, after all, and can be forgiven if something like this slips through the cracks.

But if White does show up, I sure hope someone gets the event on video. Watching Dana attempt shots on goal and seeing his sure-to-be-awful first touch on passes would be pure comedy gold of the highest order. Not to mention the hilarity of seeing White’s attempts to defend Conrad and his friends as they dribble around him in Harlem Globetrotter fashion.

God, I hope this actually happens.

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Dana White Says Heavyweight Josh Barnett Can Return to the UFC

UFC president Dana White and Josh Barnett have never had the best relationship. Much of the contention from White’s side stems from the fact that Barnett tested positive for steroids after winning the UFC heavyweight title back at UFC 36. A single…

UFC president Dana White and Josh Barnett have never had the best relationship.

Much of the contention from White’s side stems from the fact that Barnett tested positive for steroids after winning the UFC heavyweight title back at UFC 36. A single steroid failure would normally be fine, even for a champion. You’ll be stripped of your title, but you’ll get a chance to regain it after you serve your suspension. All you really need to do is admit your guilt and apologize; a little remorse goes a long way.

But remorse—or an admission of guilt—is the one thing we’re likely never going to get from Barnett. Multiple drug failures has shown that to be true. And Barnett has fired back at White through the years like few others are willing to do, calling him a “hindrance” and saying a “trained monkey” could do White’s job.

However, things seem to be getting better between White and Barnett. The pair were photographed together during last summer’s annual Fight Summit in Las Vegas, and White has come out in support of a Barnett move to the UFC after the conclusion of the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix:

The way that Showtime wants to do it is when that fight finally happens, whoever wins it, they wanna do another fight on Showtime. That guy would probably come to the UFC. We’ll see what happens, you know?

Josh and I have been playing nice with each other for a little while, ever since he got into the UFC. It’s more than just, does he win, does he do this? You gotta be able to come to terms with the guy and be able to deal with him. If he wins the fight, I can’t see why he wouldn’t come here, unless we weren’t able to make a deal with him.

I think Barnett will get a crack at the UFC’s heavyweight roster in 2012, no matter what happens in the finals of the heavyweight grand prix. They brought over the rest of the Strikeforce heavyweight roster, and those fighters didn’t even make the finals. Some of them didn’t even make it out of the first round. White is hinting that coming to a deal has very little to do with him actually winning the tournament.

Barnett’s place in the UFC is secure, and rightly so. And he seems to actually want another chance in the world’s biggest fight promotion, which means he’ll be much more willing to sit down and make a deal than he would have been, oh, four years ago.

The one hold-up, as I see it, will be Barnett’s pro wrestling career. I can’t imagine White allowing Barnett to continue working matches in Japan—at least not on a regular basis—so Barnett will have a choice to make: Continue professional wrestling or finally creating and cementing a real mixed martial arts legacy in the UFC.

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Bellator’s Bjorn Rebney’s Day Sounds a Whole Lot Like Dana White’s

It cannot be denied that Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney is a driven man.After all, he’s the son of one of the most legendary salesmen of all time—Jack Rebney, also known as “The Winnebago Man” due to one of the more infamous viral videos of all time. …

It cannot be denied that Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney is a driven man.

After all, he’s the son of one of the most legendary salesmen of all time—Jack Rebney, also known as “The Winnebago Man” due to one of the more infamous viral videos of all time. In the video, the elder Rebney can be seen in outtakes from a product shoot for the Winnebago line of luxury motorhomes, sweating and swearing his way through five or more hilarious minutes of video. It’s what I imagine Dana White would be like, if only he sold motorhomes instead of promoted fights.

You’ll never hear Bjorn swear. He’s the opposite of his father in that regard. But the fact that he was able to build Bellator Fighting Championship into a legitimate No. 2 fighting promotion in the world is a testament to his determination and his ability to sell a unique product.

Mike Chiapetta over at MMAFighting.com recently spent a complete fight day with Rebney and wrote a story that offers a fascinating look at a promoter going about his daily business:

By 1 p.m., he’s moving through various seating sections, listening to the sound on the fighter promos as though he was a paying fan. Is the music drowning out the voices? Is Karl Amoussou understandable through his French accent? Suddenly, something catches his eye.

“Why does Zoila have a line across her face?” he suddenly asks, confounding the audio engineer standing in front of him.

Everyone glances up to where Rebney’s looking. Every Bellator champion is represented with a banner hanging from a truss, and sure enough, there is a crease crossing the banner of women’s champion Zoila Gurgel, moving diagonally across her face. It’s something you would probably look right at without seeing, but to Rebney, it’s plain as day.

Rebney has an eye for details, and he’s a control freak. Dana White is the same way. Both men control every aspect of the arena and television production for their promotions. Nothing happens without Rebney personally giving it his stamp of approval.

Rebney will no doubt be heavily involved in the production of Spike TV’s new Bellator reality show. It’s set to debut in 2013 and will be produced by the same guy who created The Amazing Race. That’s quite the pedigree for a reality show, but you can bet Rebney will be there every step of the way.

It’s what good promoters do. Just look at Dana White.

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Greg Jackson Doing the Right Thing in Cornering Jon Jones Against Rashad Evans

Everyone in the world is looking forward to next month’s fight between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans.Everyone, that is, except for Greg Jackson.Jackson was the longtime coach for Evans, nurturing him along the path to stardom and the UFC light heavyweight…

Everyone in the world is looking forward to next month’s fight between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans.

Everyone, that is, except for Greg Jackson.

Jackson was the longtime coach for Evans, nurturing him along the path to stardom and the UFC light heavyweight championship. That all changed just over a year ago, when Evans felt slighted by comments Jones made to Ariel Helwani during a television interview.

You’ve heard it countless times: Jones said he would fight Evans if Dana White absolutely made him—even though he wouldn’t really want to. Evans took offense and ultimately left Jackson’s gym in New Mexico to set up his own camp in Florida.

It wasn’t a pretty situation. It still isn’t. In many ways, Evans and Jackson grew up in the sport together, and you can tell from listening to Jackson in recent interviews that the split still stings.

But that’s not going to stop him from cornering Jones against his former pupil. Check out what Jackson told Helwani yesterday on the MMA Hour:

I felt I had kind of a duty to the team, Jackson said on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. What I mean by that is Jon Jones is on the team, Rashad has left the team and has made it pretty clear he’s not coming back. My personal feeling, if I wanted to be a little selfish, I would say, “I don’t want to deal with any of it. I don’t want to be there at all.”

But it has to mean something to be on a team. It has to mean something, and I felt I had a duty to do that, because Jon’s on the team, so it’s my responsibility to corner him. Even though it’s a really hard decision, I decided to go with it.

I sympathize with Greg Jackson. This can’t be an easy situation for a coach who prides himself on his relationships with the fighters in his camp.

That being said, he’s making the correct decision in coaching Jones against Evans. After all, Evans is no longer a part of Jackson’s MMA, and Jones is still training there every single day. If you pride yourself on a team atmosphere, you have to stand behind your team. Jones is still one of the leaders of that team, and Evans is no longer part of the picture. It just makes sense.

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