Author: John Heinis

Tim Kennedy Warns Shogun a Drop to Middleweight ‘Is a Very Bad Idea’

Top-10 UFC middleweight Tim Kennedy says that it would be a bad career move for former Pride and UFC light heavyweight champ Mauricio Rua to cut down to 185 pounds. 
“Shogun,” who suffered the most one-sided loss of his career against Ovince St. P…

Top-10 UFC middleweight Tim Kennedy says that it would be a bad career move for former Pride and UFC light heavyweight champ Mauricio Rua to cut down to 185 pounds. 

“Shogun,” who suffered the most one-sided loss of his career against Ovince St. Preux at UFC Fight Night 56, hinted that a cut to middleweight may be his next move in a Facebook post from Monday morning. 

Kennedy disagrees, based on this tweet from Monday afternoon saying that would not be a prudent decision. 

Rua, one of the most popular knockout artists from the Pride era, has lost four of his past five fights and is just 6-8 inside the Octagon since September 2007. 

A career light heavyweight through 32 professional fights, Rua has always been undersized for 205 pounds but has also been slow on the draw and has seen his chin deteriorate in recent years. 

Kennedy, the No. 7 middleweight in the UFC’s official rankings, is 4-1 in his past five bouts, losing his most recent contest against Yoel Romero in controversial fashion at UFC 178 in September. 

The Greg Jackson’s MMA standout does not have his next fight booked yet, so in the event Rua did decide to test the middleweight waters, Kennedy would be a realistic option to welcome him to the division. 

Of course, many pundits believe that Rua‘s opportunity to revitalize his career in a new weight class was over a long time ago and that retirement has been calling his name for ages now. 

Still, in the event that Rua does cut an additional 15 pounds for his next scrap inside the Octagon, would a showdown with Kennedy be worthwhile from a fan’s perspective?

 

John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.

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Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua Says He Isn’t Done Yet, Hints at Weight Class Change

Despite losing four of his past five fights, including getting starched by up-and-comer Ovince St. Preux at UFC Fight Night 56 on Saturday, Mauricio Rua says he’s going to soldier on. 
In a Facebook post directed to his fans, “Shogun,” one of the …

Despite losing four of his past five fights, including getting starched by up-and-comer Ovince St. Preux at UFC Fight Night 56 on Saturday, Mauricio Rua says he’s going to soldier on. 

In a Facebook post directed to his fans, “Shogun,” one of the most famed competitors to step inside the Pride ring, said he is going to take some time off to regroup and consider switching weight classes. 

I made a techincal [sic] mistake, maybe due to anxiety and a big will to get this win in Brazil in such an important moment of my career, and I paid the price. Props to St. Preux, It’s part of the game and he deserved the win.

Now I will rest, enjoy my family and then think about my next steps, TUF Brazil, maybe a weight class change, but I’ll keep on going cause winning is easy, but keep on battling and overcome the obstacles is what makes a true fighter. Thank you all for the support.

Rua, who has 32 professional fights under his belt, suffered the quickest knockout of his career this weekend when OSP needed just 34 seconds to put him down and out. 

The revered Brazilian striker had nothing for the Strikeforce import, getting dropped to the canvas with a left hook, and he got caught coming in, swinging a big overhand right. 

Before Rua could even consider trying to recover, St. Preux swarmed him with vicious ground-and-pound, giving referee Mario Yamasaki no choice but to call it a fight. 

After recording a stellar 12-1 ledger under the Pride banner between October 2003 and February 2007, Rua has since compiled a paltry 6-8 mark inside the Octagon. 

Rua, who turns 33 on November 25, is a career light heavyweight who captured championship gold in both Pride and the UFC though has always been on the smaller side of the weight class. 

Therefore, a drop to 185 pounds is certainly not out of the question. The real question is, will it make a difference in how he performs on fight night?

 

John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.

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UFC Fight Night 56 Bonuses: Ovince St. Preux Pockets $50K for ‘Shogun’ KO

Top-10 UFC light heavyweight Ovince St. Preux notched the biggest win of his career Saturday night at UFC Fight Night 56, where he needed just 34 seconds to TKO ex-PRIDE/UFC champ Mauricio Rua. 
St. Preux earned his second “Performance of the Nigh…

Top-10 UFC light heavyweight Ovince St. Preux notched the biggest win of his career Saturday night at UFC Fight Night 56, where he needed just 34 seconds to TKO ex-PRIDE/UFC champ Mauricio Rua. 

St. Preux earned his second “Performance of the Night” bonus in his past four fights, making him $50,000 richer, per MMA Fighting. The UFC Fight Night 56 salaries are yet to be released as of this writing.

Stepping up to fight “Shogun” on a measly week-and-a-half notice, OSP was already prepared to square off with Francimar Barroso on the same card and was clearly ready for any and all challengers. 

The main event of the evening seemed to be over before it started, as St. Preux caught Rua with a big left hook as he came forward swinging an overhand right. 

Before the Brazilian legend had a chance to recover, the Strikeforce import unleashed some vicious ground-and-pound, leaving referee Mario Yamasaki no chance but to wave the fight off. 

The former University of Tennessee linebacker, who entered the matchup as the No. 10 light heavyweight in the UFC’s official rankings, has now won six of his past seven fights and has all but erased a lopsided decision loss to Ryan Bader at UFC Fight Night 47 in August. 

While OSP deserves a lot of credit for the victory, Rua is clearly at the tail end of his career and has to seriously start considering retirement an option—if he hasn’t already. 

After compiling a rock-solid 12-1 record inside the PRIDE ring, the once-feared striker is now a once-unfathomable 6-8 under the UFC banner. 

With his 33rd birthday awaiting him on November 25, Shogun has lost four of his past five fights, getting finished in all but one of those losses. 

Also earning a “Performance of the Night” bonus for his efforts in Uberlandia, Brazil Saturday was Leandro Silva, who submitted Charlie Brenneman in the first round of their lightweight contest.  

Finally, a hard-fought bantamweight affair between Thomas Almeida and Tim Gorman netted each competitor “Fight of the Night” honors—and the $50,000 check that comes along with it. 

Almeida won the bout via unanimous decision. 

 

John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.

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Ian McCall Officially out of UFC Fight Night 56 Bout with John Lineker

A pivotal bout in the UFC’s flyweight division at UFC Fight Night 56 is off after perennial 125-pound contender Ian McCall became ill after the weigh-ins in Uberlandia, Brazil. 
Uncle Creepy was set to compete in a grudge match with John Lineker, …

A pivotal bout in the UFC’s flyweight division at UFC Fight Night 56 is off after perennial 125-pound contender Ian McCall became ill after the weigh-ins in Uberlandia, Brazil. 

Uncle Creepy was set to compete in a grudge match with John Lineker, but UFC president Dana White tweeted Friday night that the bout may not happen, and Thomas Gerbasi of UFC.com has since confirmed the co-main event of the evening has been cancelled. 

“With flyweight contender Ian McCall taking ill after Friday’s weigh-ins in Uberlandia, Brazil, he has been forced to withdraw from his UFC Fight Night co-main event against John Lineker,” Gerbasi writes. 

The weigh-in for the bout already had the fight community buzzing, as Lineker, a notoriously heavy flyweight, needed two tries on the scale to hit 126 pounds. 

In seven UFC contests, Lineker has missed weight three times. Still, he remains relevant in the weight class by winning five of his past six fights. 

After starting his UFC career with a paltry 0-2-1 record between March 2012 and February 2013, McCall has bounced back with decisive victories over Iliarde Santos and Brad Pickett. 

According to the UFC’s official rankings, McCall is the No. 3 flyweight in the world, while Lineker cracked the rankings at No. 6. 

Lineker will not receive a new opponent at the last minute, and for the moment, it is unclear if he will receive his show money for the event. 

Leading up to the matchup, McCall began angling for a third bout with flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson, saying he had the tools to defeat Mighty Mouse, who is the reason 125-pounders don’t get more respect, per Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting. 

After his second matchup with Johnson at UFC on FX 3 in June 2012, McCall said he weighed a whopping 150.5 pounds just hours after weigh-ins, per MixedMartialArts.com, so it is feasible a bad weight cut did him in on this occasion. 

UFC Fight Night 56 moves forward with 10 matchups, headlined by a light heavyweight scrap between Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Ovince St. Preux. 

 

John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.

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Shogun Rua vs. Anderson Silva? Rua Would Accept Fight If UFC Asked

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio Rua is going to coach Season 4 of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil opposite ex-longtime middleweight titleholder Anderson Silva, and while they aren’t scheduled to fight at the end of the season, Sho…

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio Rua is going to coach Season 4 of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil opposite ex-longtime middleweight titleholder Anderson Silva, and while they aren’t scheduled to fight at the end of the season, Shogun is open to the idea. 

In an interview with Brazilian media outlet Combate, the former PRIDE champ explained that he’d sling some leather with The Spider if the UFC made the offer (translation via Bloody Elbow). 

The UFC called Eduardo (Alonso, Shogun’s manager) giving him the news that Anderson and I were going to be the TUF coaches and that we weren’t going to fight each other. But I’m really happy about taking part of TUF, even further because of Anderson, a living legend. Fighting against him wasn’t something that I wanted. We trained together. But I would accept if the UFC asked.

Rua, who has lost three of his past four fights, headlines UFC Fight Night 56 Friday night against Strikeforce import Ovince St. Preux in front of a Uberlandia, Brazil, home crowd.

OSP enters the matchup a winner in five of his past six fights, though he lost a clear-cut decision to Ryan Bader at UFC Fight Night 47 in August after being outwrestled for five rounds in his most recent contest. 

Silva, 39, recently signed a new 15-fight deal with the UFC, via MMA Junkie, and is currently scheduled to battle former Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz at UFC 183 in January. 

In the event both Silva and Rua win their upcoming bouts convincingly, a scrap between the two could potentially be an entertaining affair, though it would be close to meaningless in the 185- or 205-pound title pictures. 

That being said, would a Silva vs. Rua be a fight worth paying for?

 

John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Bisping, Rockhold, Weidman Unite to Rip Vitor Belfort for Past PED Use

UFC middleweight contenders Michael Bisping and Luke Rockhold, as well as champion Chris Weidman, may not agree on much, but they found common ground on not being big Vitor Belfort fans. 
At the UFC Fight Night 55 pre-fight press conference (…

UFC middleweight contenders Michael Bisping and Luke Rockhold, as well as champion Chris Weidman, may not agree on much, but they found common ground on not being big Vitor Belfort fans. 

At the UFC Fight Night 55 pre-fight press conference (NSFW language) in Sydney, Bisping, Rockhold and Weidman all took shots at The Phenom’s past usage of performance-enhancing drugs (h/t MMA Fighting).

“But yes, listen, Vitor was juiced to the gills for many years, and now, he’s not,” Bisping said when asked about who would win when Weidman and Belfort square off at UFC 184. “Now, Chris is going to win that fight, first and foremost. [Weidman‘s] at an advantage…because [Belfort‘s] no longer juiced to the gills.” 

“Vitor’s a joke to me,” Rockhold said. “We’ll see what comes out. I’m very interested…to see what happens in his drug test he took the other day. We’ll see if the fight even takes place.” 

Weidman also expressed concern about Belfort‘s recent Nevada State Athletic Commission-administered random drug test (per Yahoo Sports). 

“Yeah, I’m worried about that,” Weidman admitted. “You want him to get drug-tested until he actually gets drug-tested.”

Belfort was originally slated to face Weidman at UFC 173 in May but withdrew from the bout shortly after the NSAC banned testosterone replacement therapy (TRT), per Fox Sports.  

The Brazilian slugger’s showdown with “The All-American” will be the first time he competes in the United States since August 2011, compiling a 4-1 record in Canada and Brazil while using TRT. 

Back in February, Belfort revealed he had failed a random drug test for elevated levels of testosterone but was still later granted a conditional license to fight Weidman by the NSAC since he was not licensed at the time of the test failure, per MMA Fighting.

Additionally, Belfort failed a drug test for the anabolic steroid 4-hydroxytestosterone back in October 2006 after a decision loss to Dan Henderson, per MMA Weekly.

After a great 2013 scoring headkick knockouts over Bisping, Rockhold and Henderson, Belfort did not manage to get inside the Octagon in 2014.

Assuming he keeps his pre-fight drug screenings clean, Belfort meets Weidman on UFC 184 on February 28, serving as the pay-per-view show’s main event.

 

John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com