Author: Jordy McElroy

Dana White: Silva-Sonnen Rematch On Deck, Could Be Held in Brazil Soccer Stadium

The stage is being set for the ultimate grudge match between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen.If he gets past Mark Munoz at UFC on Fox 2, Sonnen could finally get another crack at the middleweight title, but it will most likely come on hostile territory…

The stage is being set for the ultimate grudge match between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen.

If he gets past Mark Munoz at UFC on Fox 2, Sonnen could finally get another crack at the middleweight title, but it will most likely come on hostile territory.

“If we can get Chael Sonnen vs. Anderson Silva, that will probably be held in Brazil in a stadium. Everyone in the world will want to watch that,” UFC President Dana White said in an episode of UFC Tonight.

Since the first bout in August 2010, fans have been salivating over the possibility of a rematch. Silva has never been dominated in his MMA career the way he was against Sonnen, who won the first four rounds before succumbing to a triangle choke late in the fifth.

After the bout, the feud between the middleweights spilt over into the media, where Sonnen’s daily routine became bad-mouthing Silva, his teammates and the entire country of Brazil.

Silva has stayed out of all forms of verbal warfare for the most part, but Brazil didn’t take kindly to being the punch line to Sonnen’s jokes.

The former title contender originally planned on accompanying teammate Yushin Okami to the octagon in his fight against Silva in Rio de Janeiro at UFC 134, but a multitude of death threats quickly put an end to those plans.

Rumors have been circulating for quite some time about a UFC event taking place in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The event will likely be held in the Estadio do Morumbi soccer stadium, which has the capacity to hold as many as 80,000 spectators.

The event could easily surpass UFC 129 as the biggest live event in UFC history.

With that said, Sonnen’s safety should remain the UFC’s primary concern, and every death threat should be taken seriously.

It won’t be a happy crowd if the middleweight title changes hands.

UFC on Fox 2 takes place on Jan. 28 at the United Center in Chicago. Munoz could throw a huge monkey wrench in the UFC’s plans if he manages to upset Sonnen.

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Nick Diaz on GSP Injury: "If It Hurts, Don’t Do It"

Nick Diaz seems to be turning over a new leaf.The former Strikeforce welterweight champion appears to be done with media charades in order to progress his MMA career. Now, fans are getting an opportunity to know the real Nick Diaz, and he isn’t the tra…

Nick Diaz seems to be turning over a new leaf.

The former Strikeforce welterweight champion appears to be done with media charades in order to progress his MMA career. Now, fans are getting an opportunity to know the real Nick Diaz, and he isn’t the trash-talking, middle-finger waving bad boy most expected.

After defeating MMA legend BJ Penn at UFC 137, Diaz grabbed the microphone and called out UFC champion Georges St-Pierre. Diaz was slated to face St-Pierre that night, but the French Canadian was forced to withdraw from the bout after injuring his knee in training.

“Where you at Georges? Where you at mother (expletive)?” yelled Diaz in his postfight interview with UFC commentator Joe Rogan. “I don’t think Georges is hurt, I think he’s scared. I think he’s scared to fight everybody right now.”

Enraged by the remarks, St-Pierre insisted on UFC President Dana White booking a 2012 championship bout between him and Diaz. White wasted no time in obliging the champ’s request, but unfortunately the bout had another setback several weeks later.

St-Pierre tried to train on his already injured knee and ended up tearing his ACL, an injury that could keep him out of action for 10 months.

In an interview with Vic Mysterio of Hammerfisting MMA Podcast, a more reserved and honest Diaz talked about St-Pierre’s injury and overtraining.

“I don’t think so. I think he’s hurt,” Diaz responded, when asked if he believed St-Pierre was using his injury as an excuse to duck fights. “I think he might’ve hurt himself. He shouldn’t have done that. If it hurts, don’t do it.”

“I had to go through a lot of fights like that. You know, there were things I couldn’t do, and I couldn’t come in at 100 percent. So basically, heal and worry about your weight cause that’s all you’re gonna be able to do is make the weight and go out there and fight. Sometimes you win some, sometimes you lose some, sometimes you can’t be at 100 percent.”

St-Pierre has always been known to incorporate various methods of explosive training into his workout routines.

While St-Pierre’s training methods have made him into one of the most explosive athletes in MMA, Diaz believes the strain placed on the human body during such rigorous training also makes a fighter injury prone.

“He hurt himself, and you know, the type of exercises he does too. You’re injury prone, higher likely to hurt yourself doing explosive workout exercises,” said Diaz.

“I have different type of workouts. I’m a different type of athlete, and I think that we get hurt less and we fight more. That’s why I have more fights.”

Diaz is now slated to face Carlos Condit for the interim UFC welterweight title on Super Bowl weekend on February 4 at UFC 143.

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Tito Ortiz Wants Chuck Liddell in UFC Swan Song

Tito Ortiz is slated to return in July in what is expected to be the last bout of his professional career.As far as potential opponents go, Forrest Griffin’s name comes up often, but Ortiz could be looking to end his career against legendary adversary …

Tito Ortiz is slated to return in July in what is expected to be the last bout of his professional career.

As far as potential opponents go, Forrest Griffin‘s name comes up often, but Ortiz could be looking to end his career against legendary adversary and UFC Hall of Famer Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell.

“Hopefully on fourth of July weekend, I’ll be fighting my last fight, and I’ll be done. It’s time to walk away,” Ortiz told MiddleEasy.com.

“I know everyone would love to see me against Chuck. I don’t know. We’ll see what Dana and Lorenzo has to offer and see what they want to do, sit down with Lorenzo next week and Dana and let’s make my last fight, and let’s make it a memorable one.”

While Ortiz and Griffin both own a victory over one another, Liddell has had “The People’s Champ’s” number for quite sometime. The former training partners first met inside the octagon in April 2004 at UFC 47, where Liddell scored a second-round TKO stoppage over the former light heavyweight champion.

The rematch came two years later. While Ortiz amounted more of an offensive effort, the outcome remained the same. Liddell stuffed the takedown and took Ortiz apart on the feet for a third-round stoppage.

Liddell retired from the sport after suffering a brutal knockout loss to Rich Franklin in June 2010. Would he consider returning for one last fight against Ortiz?

Regardless of the future, Ortiz seems to be in a good place in terms of his health and personal life.

“I’m doing great man. I’m actually enjoying the new year, enjoyed Christmas. It was nice to spend time with my family and not have to worry about training this time,” Ortiz said.

“Health is doing amazing. After the fight against [Antonio Rogerio] Nogueira, I got hit in the body, no broken ribs. I was very stoked, but a little bruised, and my heart hurts more than I think my body does, but it’s one of those things that happens as a fighter. Some win, some lose, just as long as I can walk away knowing that I learned something from it.”

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BJ Penn Calls Nick Diaz a Coward, Asks for Rematch (Update)

In an interesting turn of events, it looks like the friendship between B.J. Penn and Nick Diaz is no more.Penn, who lost a lopsided unanimous decision to Diaz in October, took to his Twitter account on Thursday to call out the former Strikeforce champi…

In an interesting turn of events, it looks like the friendship between B.J. Penn and Nick Diaz is no more.

Penn, who lost a lopsided unanimous decision to Diaz in October, took to his Twitter account on Thursday to call out the former Strikeforce champion. He included a picture taken after the fight of the two welterweights hanging out backstage in the locker room.

Look how much bigger you are in this [picture]…I thought you were gonna scrap from the beginning homie? What was that coward fence holding strategy to tire out the smaller man? Street fighter my ass! I made you fight like glass jaw @jonfitchdotnet poser! I’ll be ready for that weak bs next time we fight

After an injury forced UFC champion Georges St-Pierre out of his scheduled title bout with Diaz at UFC 137, Penn was given an opportunity to step in as a late replacement. Both Diaz and Penn admitted that they weren’t completely comfortable fighting one another, considering they had trained previously over the years.

Penn looked good early out, as he utilized his world class boxing skills to outpoint Diaz on the feet. But it didn’t take long for the tide to turn. Diaz’s peppering strikes and constant aggression soon took a toll on Penn, who quickly began to wilt in the second round.

It was a vintage performance from Diaz, who silenced a plethora of critics that claimed he was overrated and couldn’t cut it in the UFC.

Penn showed tremendous respect for Diaz after the bout and officially announced his retirement from the sport.

The picture above was taken immediately following the event.

 

Readers should take Penn’s post with a grain of salt. He isn’t the only person with access to his Twitter account, and there has yet to be any official word regarding the legitimacy and reasoning behind his remarks.

 

(Update)

Apparently, the Twitter post is legit, and Penn is looking to return to the octagon.

Pedro Carrasco, the MMA news director of BJPenn.com, recently responded to the mysterious tweet on the MMA Underground Forum on MixedMartialArts.com.

“There is a reason why he posted it, He is fired up because now that the holidays are over and a lot of his post-fight distractions are behind him he has nothing to do but think about things and he is not happy with the way he performed in his last several fights.

I am not here to make excuses for him, but I am pretty sure people, at least with some sense of intelligence, can identify that the BJ that fought Edgar, Fitch and Diaz was not the same Penn that fought the Diego’s and Florians of the world.

Things changed, but as it sits right now, he is back. That killer mentality and fire is back and it’s been brewing for a while now and today’s tweet is a result of it just boiling over.

Expect more to come from Penn for sure!”

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Dana White: "Fedor Sucks, Deal with It"

UFC President Dana White’s stance apparently hasn’t changed on Fedor Emelianenko.TMZ reporters recently caught up with White and asked him the same question that has been asked thousands of times over the last few years.Is Fedor ever coming to the UFC?…

UFC President Dana White‘s stance apparently hasn’t changed on Fedor Emelianenko.

TMZ reporters recently caught up with White and asked him the same question that has been asked thousands of times over the last few years.

Is Fedor ever coming to the UFC?

“Fedor sucks man. You guys need to get with the facts, deal with it, he sucks, get over the Fedor thing,” said White.

“He’s on the downside. I won’t keep dissing Fedor.”

Emelianenko has long been considered the best heavyweight of all time and one of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport.

For over a decade, the legendary Pride champion was flawless in his effort in dispatching of some of the best fighters in the world, but there are those who would turn this statement on its head.

Emelianenko was never able to find the same success on Western shores that he achieved in Japan and Russia.

After impressive knockout wins over UFC castoffs Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski, Emelianenko stepped into the cage under the Strikeforce banner.

He was able to defeat Brett Rogers in a rather sloppy debut, but the downward skid came soon after the Russian heavyweight dropped three straight losses to Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Silva and light heavyweight champion Dan Henderson.

After the losses, Emelianenko was released from the promotion and has since rebounded with back-to-back wins over Jeff Monson and Satoshi Ishii.

There were rumblings from Emelianenko’s management and M-1 Global in renewed efforts to negotiate with the UFC, but the chances of a deal actually coming together seems just as far off as it’s ever been.

If both sides could finally reach an agreement, would it behoove the UFC to finally ink Emelianenko?

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Alistair Overeem on Brock Lesnar: ‘It Would Be a Shame If He Stopped Now’

Brock Lesnar was perhaps the most polarizing figure in MMA history.After getting crushed by Alistair Overeem at UFC 141, the former UFC heavyweight champion decided to pull the plug on his fight career. It was a decision that is being greeted with mixe…

Brock Lesnar was perhaps the most polarizing figure in MMA history.

After getting crushed by Alistair Overeem at UFC 141, the former UFC heavyweight champion decided to pull the plug on his fight career. It was a decision that is being greeted with mixed responses from fans.

On one hand, Lesnar, who has been plagued over the last couple of years with a serious case of diverticulitis, is making the right decision to ensure his future health.

On the other hand, there is a general consensus that the former WWE superstar never quite reached his full potential in the fight game.

Apparently, Former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Overeem falls in the latter category.

“I think he shouldn’t walk away because, love him or hate him, there’s always something when Brock’s fighting,” Overeem said at the post-fight press conference.

“He’s a guy who goes for it. I think he’s achieved a lot in a short span, and yeah, it would be a shame if he stopped now. I think there’s still more to gain for him.”

Lesnar defeated Randy Couture and claimed the coveted UFC title in only his fourth professional bout in November 2008. After a couple of successful defenses over Frank Mir and Shane Carwin, Lesnar was finally dethroned by heavyweight phenom Cain Velasquez.

It’s easy to forget the infant-like nature of Lesnar’s career due to his appearance in so many major heavyweight bouts. He ends his career with a record of 5-3.

There are amateurs in the sport with more fight experience than Lesnar.

To echo Overeem’s remarks, it’s a shame to see a fighter with Lesnar’s athletic gifts and potential suddenly walk away after such a short career, but his health should be taken into consideration over fighting.

The constant surgeries were obviously taking a toll on Lesnar, who kept defying the odds and bouncing back. There’s nothing left to prove for the Minnesota native.

When the world laughed at his MMA aspirations, he jumped ship, captured the UFC title and ascended to the top of the heavyweight division.

Lesnar proved himself as a unique and capable individual in the sport who will be talked about for years to come.

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