Kurt Angle versus Kimbo Slice on a UFC pay-per-view card?Keep dreaming…UFC President Dana White recently spoke to MMAWeekly.com about the former WWE superstar’s claims that he was contacted multiple times by the promotion and offered a pay-per-view s…
Kurt Angle versus Kimbo Slice on a UFC pay-per-view card?
Keep dreaming…
UFC President Dana White recently spoke to MMAWeekly.com about the former WWE superstar’s claims that he was contacted multiple times by the promotion and offered a pay-per-view slot against Slice.
“I like Kurt Angle. He’s a nice guy. I’ve never had any problems with Kurt Angle, good guy. Kurt Angle was calling me to fight in the UFC. He wanted to fight in the UFC, and he wanted to come over here or whatever, especially after Brock got in,” White said.
“What I offered [Angle] was, I said, here’s what I’ll do: ‘I’ll put you on The Ultimate Fighter during the heavyweight season when Kimbo was on.’ I was gonna put him on The Ultimate Fighter. He wanted to do it. We worked out a deal, and he didn’t pass the medicals.”
White wouldn’t go into any further details of Angle’s failed medicals.
In an exclusive interview with The Void, Angle admitted the window has closed on him as far as MMA is concerned, and he hopes to make the 2012 U.S. Olympic wrestling team.
As far as a potential contract with the UFC goes, it looks like it all stemmed from a possible appearance on season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter.
According to White, this is all that was ever offered to Angle.
Minus the commercials, UFC on Versus 6 was jam packed with great fights and nonstop action, but there were a few bouts marred by a certain degree of controversy.The bouts that stand out most are the preliminary lightweight scrap between TJ Grant and Sh…
Minus the commercials, UFC on Versus 6 was jam packed with great fights and nonstop action, but there were a few bouts marred by a certain degree of controversy.
The bouts that stand out most are the preliminary lightweight scrap between TJ Grant and Shane Roller and the main card welterweight bout between Anthony Johnson and Charlie Brenneman.
In the Grant and Roller bout, Grant made a beautiful transition from a guillotine choke attempt to an armbar.
Referee Fernando Yamasaki was overseeing the action.
There was no doubt that the hold was locked in tight. Roller, who attempted to clasp his hands together to defend, wasn’t even in a position to tap, and he would’ve had to call out to the referee to stop the action. After hearing a grunt or a yell, Yamasaki stopped the fight to protect Roller’s arm from being broken.
Seeing as he didn’t actually tap from the hold, Roller and attending fans were extremely upset with the stoppage.
It wouldn’t be the only questionable stoppage that night.
Longtime MMA referee Mario Yamasaki oversaw the Johnson and Brenneman bout. Johnson, an abnormally large welterweight with jarring power, had Brenneman on wobbly every time he landed on the feet.
At about the halfway mark in the first round, Johnson landed a huge kick that dropped Brenneman instantly. As soon as Brenneman touched the canvas, Yamasaki stepped in and stopped the fight.
It was tough stoppage for Brenneman, who was clearly conscious when the bout was stopped.
“Everybody on Twitter was crying about that stoppage. I agree 100 percent with that stoppage. First of all, he was on crazy legs before the kick to the head even happened. There’s a fine line between stop too early and stop too late. I’ll take stop too early every time over stop too late,” UFC President Dana White said at the post-fight press conference.
A bout that ended up on the opposite end of the spectrum was the final preliminary bout between Yves Edwards and Rafaello Oliveira.
After getting stunned in the second round, Oliveira took an unnecessary amount of extra punishment from Edwards before the fight was stopped. Interestingly enough, Mario Yamasaki was the referee in that bout as well.
With that said, fans have to understand that referees are there to protect the fighters. They understand that fighters train hard, and you want to always give a guy a chance to fight out of a position and come back.
It’s a tough job, and there will surely be hiccups from time to time.
There has never been a death or serious injury inside the UFC octagon, and whether you agree with the refs or not, you have to like those statistics.
The official weigh-in for UFC on Versus 6 is on tap for later this afternoon at the D.C. Armory in Washington, D.C.The free fight card features the bantamweight championship bout between Dominick Cruz and Demetrious Johnson.Coming off a possible Fight …
The official weigh-in for UFC on Versus 6 is on tap for later this afternoon at the D.C. Armory in Washington, D.C.
The free fight card features the bantamweight championship bout between Dominick Cruz and Demetrious Johnson.
Coming off a possible Fight of the Year candidate with nemesis Urijah Faber, Cruz hopes to continue to impress on the big stage as he looks to secure his second successful UFC title defense.
Johnson, on the other hand, is relatively unknown to general fans of the sport. He hopes he can capitalize on the huge wave of momentum he’s riding after securing back-to-back wins over legendary bantamweights Miguel Torres and Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto.
The card also features a heavyweight tilt between Pat Barry and Stefan Struve and a welterweight showdown between possible contenders Anthony Johnson and Charlie Brenneman.
Stay tuned to Bleacher Report for live updates as the fighters take to the scales at 4 p.m. ET.
UFC welterweight Carlos Condit has always had an undying belief in his ability to overcome obstacles.At UFC 137, to be held October 29 in Las Vegas, Condit will face the biggest obstacle of his career against welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre.The…
UFC welterweight Carlos Condit has always had an undying belief in his ability to overcome obstacles.
At UFC 137, to be held October 29 in Las Vegas, Condit will face the biggest obstacle of his career against welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre.
The idea that everything happens for a reason means a lot to Condit, who was granted the UFC title shot after Nick Diaz was pulled from the main event for missing multiple scheduled press conferences.
Originally slated to face B.J. Penn on the same card, Condit was bumped to the main event and received the opportunity of a lifetime––challenging St-Pierre for the world title.
He reminisces about one of the best phone calls he ever received from his manager, Malki Kawa—
“Um, I was blown away, I got pretty emotional. I started to tear up, which was pretty awesome because I was in public. I had to try to compose myself thinking of all the hard work that got me to this point,” Condit told Buddhasport in an exclusive interview.
Condit has certainly earned the spotlight. He is coming off four consecutive wins over Jake Ellenberger, Dan Hardy, Dong Hyun Kim and Rory MacDonald.
The wins over Ellenberger and MacDonald were especially impressive. Ellenberger recently knocked out former pound-for-pound standout Jake Shields, and MacDonald is already drawing St-Pierre comparisons.
“After I beat them and they keep doing well and dominating like they have been, it makes my wins over them even better. But even when I fought them, I knew that they were the real deal and would go far because they both gave me problems at certain times during those fights,” said Condit.
Despite his recent success, fans are starting to question the nature of this matchup from a psychological perspective.
Condit and St-Pierre are both affiliated with Jackson’s MMA, and it’s always interesting to know who had the upper hand during training sessions.
“We never actually [trained together]. There was a time or two when we were training in the gym at the same time, but I think we kind of seen this fight on the horizon. We were always cool and always friendly with each other, but he would kind of be doing his thing and I would be doing my own thing. We have never sparred and that would be the best way to know somebody’s style,” Condit said.
In other words, neither fighter holds any underlying knowledge about the other’s game plan. Condit and St-Pierre will enter the octagon on October 29 as fresh opponents, who just so happen to train at the same gym.
St-Pierre will undoubtedly enter the bout as a huge favorite, but as history has shown, it’s rather unwise to underestimate a fighter like Condit. He has solid technical striking and knockout power to threaten St-Pierre while standing. If taken down, Condit is constantly active from his back, working short strikes, sweeps and submissions.
But Condit’s greatest attribute is his heart. Regardless of how the rounds are going, he is never really out of a fight.
A fight with Condit is always nasty, and he plans on proving to the world that he is the best 170-pound fighter out there.
“Training has been going awesome, the best camp of my career for sure,” said Condit.
“I’ve always been a big fan of Georges. I’ve admired his style and kind of the way he carries himself, and I’m honored to get in there and challenge him for the belt and step in the cage with him. With all that aside, I think that I’m the best welterweight in the world, and I’ve been trying to prove that every single time I get in there, and this fight is going to be no different.”
The UFC originally had plans for Kurt Angle versus Kimbo Slice on a pay-per-view card?”It’s true! It’s damn true,” claims Angle.The 42-year-old former WWE wrestler recently spoke with The Void about the proposed MMA bout that never came to be.”The firs…
The UFC originally had plans for Kurt Angle versus Kimbo Slice on a pay-per-view card?
“It’s true! It’s damn true,” claims Angle.
The 42-year-old former WWE wrestler recently spoke with The Void about the proposed MMA bout that never came to be.
“The first time I met (Dana White), he wouldn’t let me wrestle and fight, and I had just signed with TNA, and I didn’t want to go back to TNA and say, ‘Hey, I’m not doing this now…’ so he said ‘call me when you’re done wrestling,'” said Angle.
“I called him a couple of years later—I was getting a little tired of wrestling—I said ‘Hey, I’m ready,’ so we had another meeting and he had me do a physical, and he threw a great offer at me, but said ‘I need you in four and a half weeks.'”
This would’ve shortened any potential camp for Angle, who had virtually no MMA fighting experience outside of training.
Angle dreamed of one day competing inside the UFC octagon, but if his dream was destined to unfold, he wanted to be at his best. A fighter, especially one with Angle’s age and limited experience, can hardly compete at his best with such a short training camp.
“I said ‘I can’t do that. You’ve gotta give me three to six months,’ but he said ‘I need you in four and a half weeks,’ so I said ‘Well then, we’re not going to be able to do this,'” Angle stated.
“The reason Dana White wanted me so quickly though is because he wanted to put me in the next available pay-per-view against Kimbo Slice.
“I could’ve done it in four and a half weeks, but I wanted to be at my best. I didn’t want to start training, almost be at my best, but not quite. No matter who it is, I knew I wanted to take them down and pound them, but I wanted to be 100-percent ready, I didn’t want to just train for four weeks.”
“In fact, I couldn’t have trained for four weeks anyway,” Angle continued. “I would’ve trained for two weeks, and then tapered down for two weeks to get ready. It didn’t even make sense. Two and a half weeks of training? Who does that? Also, I hadn’t even trained in MMA for at least a year and a half.”
Angle wished things could’ve turned out differently, but he understands the window has closed on a potential career in MMA. As a former Olympic gold medalist, Angle and fans will always ponder the possibilities.
What would an in-shape Angle at optimum condition look like in the UFC octagon?
MMA fans will never know the answer to that question.
“My MMA career is over. I always wanted to do it, but I think going back to wrestling at the Olympics will fill that void, that ‘what if…'”
Angle is expected to try out for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team. If he earns a spot, he would be the oldest member ever to make the team.
UFC President Dana White hasn’t confirmed any of Angle’s comments.
The ever-growing heat between former teammates Jon Jones and Rashad Evans has fans gearing up for the most anticipated grudge match in recent memory.After securing his first ever UFC title defense against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 135, Jones now…
The ever-growing heat between former teammates Jon Jones and Rashad Evans has fans gearing up for the most anticipated grudge match in recent memory.
After securing his first ever UFC title defense against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 135, Jones now turns his attention towards Evans, a bitter rival that feels like he was betrayed and thrown under the bus by former coaches and teammates.
Jackson’s MMA, headed by world-renowned coach Greg Jackson, has quickly grown into the official breeding ground for world champions.
Evans has trained under Jackson for years, and it came as a shock to the former light heavyweight champ when Jones was brought aboard. If you already have a potential 205-pound champion in your camp, why bring in another?
“It’s beyond a blame,” said Evans in an interview with MMAWeekly. “Greg knew what he was doing, what was up with it when he brought him into camp, and that’s why I don’t have too much to say to Greg anymore.”
“Because it’s like you knew. I told you about this before it happened, and you sat up there and said ‘if you can’t trust your friends, who can you trust,’ but then when it goes down, you want to wash your hands and walk away and say ‘oh, I had nothing to do with this,’ but you brought it to make it happen. So I don’t like that, and I don’t respect that.”
Along with fighting, Evans may want to consider a career as a psychic for his Nostradamus-like prediction.
Jones steamrolled the light heavyweight competition and earned a shot at the UFC title, replacing an injured Evans at UFC 128. The future became the present as Jones decimated MMA legend Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to become the youngest UFC champion ever.
After Jones became champion, the relationship between Evans and Jackson’s MMA nosedived. It became apparent that Evans would have to face Jones to win back his UFC title.
Evans has reasoned in the past that he wasn’t upset at the idea of fighting Jones, but he was surprised by how quickly Jones jumped at the opportunity to face him. According to Evans, the two agreed in the past that they would never face one another.
While Jones is one reason, Evans decided to part ways with his old gym, there are a plethora of others, including the “commercial-like” atmosphere of the once tight-knit camp.
“Back in the day, it was like we were all family. We were really tight with each other, but now, it’s gotten so commercial. Greg is always gone all over the place, and it’s just not a family no more. It’s too transient. You can pay a certain amount of money, and you can come and live at the Jackson camp, and it just got so transient, you’d see so many different faces come and go. It’s just not the same place as before,” Evans said.
With everything that’s happened, Evans is ready to move on and leave Jackson’s MMA in the past. He now trains at Imperial Athletics with former fighters from American Top Team.
Coming out of a new camp, Evans looked to be in top form in his victory over Tito Ortiz at UFC 133.
The upcoming championship bout between Jones and Evans has yet to receive an official date, but regardless of the outcome, Evans vows it won’t change his stance with Jackson’s MMA.
“No, I don’t think I’m ever going to train back at Jackson’s camp,” Evans said. “I will go back to Albuquerque, New Mexico at Mean 1, Keith (Jardine’s) gym, but the things at Jackson’s camp, they’re just different now. It’s not the same no more.”
Kurt Angle versus Kimbo Slice on a UFC pay-per-view card?