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Chael Sonnen Doesn’t Think Georges St-Pierre vs. Carlos Condit Will Happen

Georges St-Pierre vs. Carlos Condit, originally slated for UFC 137 next weekend, may never happen, according to No. 1 middleweight contender Chael Sonnen. UFC 137 is now headlined by Nick Diaz vs. B.J. Penn, the winner of which will be getting the next…

Georges St-Pierre vs. Carlos Condit, originally slated for UFC 137 next weekend, may never happen, according to No. 1 middleweight contender Chael Sonnen.

UFC 137 is now headlined by Nick Diaz vs. B.J. Penn, the winner of which will be getting the next shot at the welterweight title, Sonnen said.

“I don’t think this fight [St-Pierre vs. Condit] is going to come back for some time. Listen, if you’re the champion, you remain champion until you lose the title. If you’re the No. 1 contender you absolutely are not ingrained in any type of stone, ” Sonnen told Jon Anik of ESPN’s MMA Live. “As a matter of fact, not only do I believe he [Condit] has lost this opportunity, I believe the winner of Diaz and B.J. Penn will get the next opportunity.”

An interesting take from the always-expressive Sonnen.

One just has to look at the situation Rashad Evans got himself into when he chose to wait for then-light heavyweight champion Mauricio Rua to come back from knee surgery back in 2010 to see the position Condit might be putting himself in by waiting for St-Pierre. Evans is still waiting for that shot at the belt.

After having injured his own knee, Evans’ former training partner Jon Jones has beaten Rua to become the UFC light heavyweight champion. In fact, Jones has already defended his title against Quinton Jackson, the man Evans defeated to obtain No. 1 contender status back in May 2010.

After recently injuring his hand Evans has once again been forced to forgo another title shot as former champion Lyoto Machida is now Jones’ next challenge at 205 pounds for UFC 140 in Toronto.

The situation for Condit is a little bit different from Evans’ in the sense that Rua was looking at six to eight months of recovery time and St-Pierre is only looking at six to eight weeks.

Sonnen does have a point, though: The fight game is like a revolving door. One can be the No. 1 contender one day and be out of the UFC the next.

It’s doubtful Condit will be out of the UFC anytime soon, but practice in this sport is as grueling as the competition, and injuries can strike at anytime. By choosing not to fight at UFC 137 Condit is taking a risk. Should he sustain an injury while waiting for St-Pierre he could find himself going a very long time without a paycheck to foot the bills and possibly forgoing his title shot against St-Pierre.

Josh Koscheck tweeted that he was ready to replace St-Pierre and fight Condit at UFC 137, but that fight never came to fruition.

Obviously, choosing to stay active and taking another fight against a guy like Koscheck instead of waiting for St-Pierre poses its own risks, the obvious one being, what if Condit were to lose? St-Pierre certainly won’t be defending his belt against somebody coming off a loss—this is the UFC, not Strikeforce, ladies and gentlemen.

Whether or not the winner of Diaz vs. Penn leapfrogs Condit for the next shot at St-Pierre’s belt is a hotly debatable topic, but only if Diaz beats Penn in convincing fashion. Should Penn win or Diaz squeak out a decision, Condit’s title shot should be safe for the time being.

St-Pierre has already fought and beaten Penn on two separate occasions. In their second showdown at UFC 94, St-Pierre beat Penn so handily through four rounds that Penn’s corner was forced to throw in the towel before the start of the fifth.

St-Pierre is simply too big and too strong of a wrestler for Penn to deal with and a third bout between these two simply doesn’t make sense at this point in time.

Diaz, on the other hand, was the original opponent for St-Pierre at UFC 137 until the often mercurial fighter decided to play “hooky” with the UFC by not fulfilling his media obligations. UFC president Dana White was forced to demote him to the co-main event against Penn.

With St-Pierre’s injury, things have come full circle and Diaz finds himself main eventing UFC 137 once again and the fan interest in an eventual title fight between St-Pierre, and Diaz hasn’t dissipated one bit.

Should Diaz beat Penn in convincing fashion this coming Saturday, one would have to imagine Condit will be sweating a little bit because fans will undoubtedly be demanding the Diaz vs. St-Pierre fight. Anyone who knows White knows he wants to put on the fights fans want to see and this may be to the chagrin of Condit.

Condit doesn’t have to worry too much, though, because even if Diaz gets the first shot at St-Pierre, there is no doubting the fact that Condit will be getting the next shot thereafter. The only question is, how long would he have to wait and would he have to take a fight in between?

Condit finds himself in a bit of a hard place, but choosing to wait until after the new year for St-Pierre to heal up is probably his best bet. One can never know these things though until everything plays out—hindsight is always 20/20, right?

Leon Horne is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report and is part of the B/R MMA interview team. Follow @Leon_Horne.

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Alistair Overeem: His Top 5 Performances in Anticipation of His UFC Arrival

Alistair Overeem is set to make his UFC debut against former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar in a title eliminator of epic proportions at UFC 141 this December 30 in Las Vegas.Both men are hulking specimens who touch or surpass the 265 pound heav…

Alistair Overeem is set to make his UFC debut against former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar in a title eliminator of epic proportions at UFC 141 this December 30 in Las Vegas.

Both men are hulking specimens who touch or surpass the 265 pound heavyweight limit. The anticipation and hype surrounding this fight couldn’t be any higher.

Having Overeem in the UFC will prove useful for the promotion as they continue to make headway in the international market. He is extremely popular with the Japanese fans for his stints in Pride Fighting Championships, Dream and K1 kickboxing.

Combine Overeem’s international star power along with Lesnar’s drawing power and polarizing character, and there is no doubting the possibility that UFC 141 may very well be one of the most successful cards of 2011.

Overeem has competed in both the light heavyweight and more recently heavyweight divisions and despite not always having the most success, the Dutchman has, for the most part, always been involved in exciting fights win or lose.

With all this in mind, let’s countdown the top five performances of Alistair Overeem’s career.

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MFC 31’s Kajan Johnson: Rory MacDonald Might Do More Than Georges St-Pierre

If one sits down and thinks about top ranked Canadian mixed martial artists, names like Georges St-Pierre, Rory MacDonald, Mark Bocek and Sam Stout all come to mind. Many don’t think of top ranked Canadian lightweight Kajan “Ragin” Johnson, but with a 12-2-1 record over his last 14 fights, fans maybe on the cusp of hearing about this young man more often than not.

Kajan is set to faceoff against (11-1) Richie Whitson at MFC 31 this Friday on HDnet at 10:00 p.m. A win over Whitson will get him that much closer to his ultimate goal, a goal that is common to most mixed martial artists, which is to get that call from the UFC.

For an up and coming fighter like Kajan, winning the next fight helps a fighter to reach their shorter term goals and this is certainly the case for Kajan.

“All I care about right now is stacking up wins, increasing my stock as a fighter and making money dude, that’s all I really care about in the here and now,” Kajan told Bleacher Report’s Leon Horne.

Kajan brings forth a truth about the life of professional fighters that not everybody realises or thinks about. Before becoming the next Georges St-Pierre or Anderson Silva, fighters have to make great sacrifices and put a lot on the line to achieve their goals. The life of riches and superstardom is preceded by a life of trying to get by financially and believing in yourself when many people have their doubts.

After only going 6-8 in the first half of his career and sustaining a bad injury, Kajan decided that it was time to treat fighting as if it were a profession, not a hobby anymore.

“I just realised that while it [fighting] is fun, it’s not all fun and games. Every fight really can be your last fight, so you have got to take it seriously and do everything you can do to prepare yourself the best way that you can.”

After going 12-2-1 Kajan has decided to take his training up a level yet again as he has been invited to be a part of Tri Star gym in Montreal where UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and UFC welterweight up-and-comer Rory MacDonald call home.

“Tri star, that’s my new home. I’m moving there after this fight, they officially made me part of their team, I am thoroughly impressed,” Kajan said. “I’ve trained in a lot of places and I’ve never trained anywhere better than that,” he continued. “Hands down, the best gym I’ve ever been to, hands down.”

Before joining Macdonald’s new team in Montreal, Kajan faced off against him for King of the Cage in 2007. Unfortunately for Kajan the outcome of the fight wasn’t the one he wanted, but it confirmed to him that MacDonald really had what it takes to make it in the big leagues.

“I knew right away, I knew even before that fight that he had what it took to be where he is now, but after that fight, during the fight I really realised he had what it took. Not really in the technical game, I knew he had very good technique, but it was the mental game and the energy aspect of his fight game that I was so impressed by,” Kajan said. “I actually learned a lot from him in that fight.”

MacDonald has been putting on impressive performances since his UFC debut in early 2010, so impressive, that many fans and media alike are drawing comparisons between him and fellow teammate St-Pierre. Having worked with MacDonald and watched both fighters’ careers, Kajan doesn’t think there is much to compare between the two.

“No man he’s the Rory MacDonald, he’s completely different than Georges St-Pierre. Like 100 percent different,” Kajan said about MacDonald.

“I understand they are trying to compare him like he is on that same level, that he will be able to dominate like him, but I think that Rory will actually do more in the sport than Georges St-Pierre,” Kajan said. “Me and him spent some time in Montreal when I was there, I was staying at his house and he told me some of his long term goals and I really believe that he can achieve them and when he does achieve them people are going to be saying a lot more about him than they ever said about Georges St-Pierre. Not to knock Georges in anyway, he is an amazing fighter and he has done amazing things.”

Pretty bold predictions from this young lightweight, but Kajan is certainly not the only one who believes that MacDonald may have the potential to be the best in the world UFC President Dana White has given his fair share of praise to the young Canadian as well.

Kajan himself has set his sights high and when looking inside of himself he sees just as much potential and just as bright a future for himself as any of the best fighters in the world right now.

“I’ve always known that I can go very far in this sport. I’m the type of guy that if you show me something I can do it. If somebody does a technique in front of me I can do it, if I see something on TV I can do it. That is part of what sets me apart from the pack,” Kajan said.

In the world of fighting, Kajan feels there are different types of fighters, in fact he broke them in to three categories. One the pressure fighters who like to be aggressive and push the pace, but may lack some of the technical finesse. Guys like Wanderlei Silva or Chris Leben came to my mind when Kajan brought this up. The second group of fighters are the guys that are super skilled, but lack the required dedication and work ethic, a fighter like BJ Penn was Kajan’s example. The third group Kajan defined as the kind of fighter he is.

“I think I have the ability to be everything. I have the ability to be the pressure fighter, the skilled guy, the tough guy, I’ve got a crazy chin, I have good athleticism and I’ve got a really really hard work ethic,” Kajan said. “I think I have all of the tools and as long as I’m willing to go through hell and to put myself through what other people aren’t willing to put themselves through and do everything in my power possible to be the best I can be, I believe I can be better than everybody.”

Confidence isn’t lacking for Kajan and in a business where you live and die by your own individual performances, being confident is key.

In the past every fighter has been defined by a style, whether it be striking, wrestling or Jiu-Jitsu everyone had their bread and butter and despite being really good in that particular style, often times they lacked the technical skill and confidence in the other disciplines.

“I do whatever I want, whenever I want, that’s my style,” Kajan told Bleacher Report.

Kajan didn’t grow up learning one style, he started off learning MMA right from the get go, which has allowed him to be confident in his abilities no matter where the fight goes. He represents the new crop of up and coming mixed martial artists.

“I am the MMA guy, I’m part of the new breed, Rory MacDonald is also part of the new breed. We started in MMA, we didn’t start in Karate, Muay Thai, Wrestling or Jiu-Jitsu, we didn’t start in that we started in MMA.” Kajan said.

Being so well rounded certainly gives any fighter a leg up on a good part of the competition. When a fighter isn’t afraid and is skilled enough to fight anywhere the fight goes it makes it hard for an opponent to create a game-plan.

“I don’t want people thinking that I’m a striker, that I’m a wrestler or whatever, I don’t want people to have a game plan against me,” Kajan said. “Every single fight I want to scare people. I want everyone to fear me, but love me at the same time [laughs].”

Having a well rounded skill-set and being mentally tough are two major components in determining the success a fighter will have inside the ring. However, you see many fighters thanking God or saying a prayer prior to or after their fights. Spirituality for some appears to be as equally important to some fighters’ success as the mental and physical aspects.

Having grown up on a First Nation’s reserve in Canada with a Native America stepfather who was also a Chief and medicine man, Kajan believes that the culture and spirituality he developed while growing up on the reserve in Burns Lake, British Columbia plays a big role in his success as a fighter.

“It’s [spirituality] is a huge part of my fight game as well,” Kajan said. “I use that spirituality when I fight because if you don’t have all three parts: mental, physical or spiritual, If you are not actively cultivating all three parts of yourself then you’re gonna be lacking in that ring and it’s gonna show.”

Kajan is going to bring together all three aspects of his fight game for his showdown with Whitson come Friday night and he is hoping to add another win to the win column and fight again as soon as possible, because a fighter in this stage of their career needs just that, wins, and a lot of them.

“Really I think the best thing for me is just to focus on this fight, winning this fight and then fight again immediately, as soon as possible,” Kajan said. “I’m just trying to fight as much as I can, make as much money as I can and increase my stock as fighter, that’s all I want to do.”

For fans who want to see Kajan fight, they can go to Forum Sports Bar if they are in the Vancouver area, if not, tune in to the MFC 31 event which is headlined by Rameau Thierry Sokodjou vs. Ryan Jimmo on HDnet. Kajan can be followed on Twitter @iamragin

Leon Horne is a writer for Bleacher Report and is part of the BR MMA Interview team, Follow @Leon_Horne

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Gilbert Melendez Possibly to the UFC: Does This Spell the End of Strikeforce?

Looks as if UFC president Dana White wants to get current Strikeforce Lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez into the UFC and it couldn’t happen sooner.Melendez would join the current trend of former Strikeforce champions making the move to the UFC, onc…

Looks as if UFC president Dana White wants to get current Strikeforce Lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez into the UFC and it couldn’t happen sooner.

Melendez would join the current trend of former Strikeforce champions making the move to the UFC, once again leaving Strikeforce with out another champion.

Despite the saying that “It’s business as usual” for the Strikeforce promotion after the UFC parent company Zuffa LLC buyout, it looks as if the promotion’s future is getting bleaker by the day.

After UFC Live: Cruz vs. Johnson last night, Dana White took some time to tell a select group of the media, which included Bleacher Report MMA, that the UFC was looking into acquiring Strikeforce Lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez.

“We do want to bring Gilbert Melendez over and we’re looking at it right now. We’re going to bring him over ASAP.” White said.

The big question now is what does this mean for Strikeforce? A fight promotion with no promotable champions is the equivalent to having the NFL with no Super Bowl, it doesn’t make sense.

Does this mean the end of Strikeforce is near or does it merely mean that Strikeforce is becoming the main feeder league to the UFC?

Strikeforce started losing its champions to the UFC even before Zuffa made the takeover. Former middleweight champion Jake Shields left in summer 2010 after beating veteran UFC fighter Dan Henderson.

Many felt it was a mistake for Strikeforce to let their champion go in free agency and whether or not it was a good or bad idea it seems as though Shields set a trend that isn’t going out of style anytime soon.

Once Zuffa bought out Strikfeforce, welterweight champion Nick Diaz, heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem and light heavyweight champion Dan Henderson have all jumped ship and signed on with the UFC.

Newly crowned middleweight champion Luke Rockhold, female welterweight champion Cris Cyborg and female bantamweight champion Miesha Tate are the only remaining champions on Strikeforce’s seven division roster.

Given the UFC brass’ disinterest in the promotion of women’s MMA and the novelty of Luke Rockhold as the middleweight champion, one can expect Rockhold, Tate and Cyborg to stick around in Strikeforce until the end, but will there be an end?

The outlook for Strikeforce couldn’t look any worse going forward. More than ever, it looks as if the organization might be folded in to the UFC once that television contract with Showtime is up.

Championless promotions aside, Strikeforce could act as a nice feeder league for the UFC and a promotion for the diehard fans to watch the up-and-coming talent in the world of MMA compete.

Fighters could fight in Strikeforce until they become solid contenders or dominant champions and once they have done enough to the point that the hardcore fans are asking to see them in the UFC then the UFC could sign them to the big leagues.

The UFC would always have an available talent pool to pull from and it would provide a professional, safe and well-supported organization for the up-and-coming guys to showcase their talents.

The current champions who jumped ship, jumped because the fans wanted it and there is no reason to think the fans won’t think the same things about the next crop of dominant Strikeforce fighters.

That being said, the track record for fight promotions bought up by Zuffa isn’t a promising one. Pride Fighting Championships was purchased by Zuffa in March 2007 and by October that same year Pride FC was no more.

World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) fared a little better than Pride FC as it was purchased in December 2006 and stuck around for four years before being absorbed by the UFC, but the main reason for their run was because the WEC was used as a home for the lighter weight classes.

Regardless of whether Strikeforce sticks around, the fact of the matter is that “business as usual” simply doesn’t apply anymore and whether the UFC absorbs the Strikeforce brand or not, Strikeforce won’t exist the way it has in the past.

It appears as though the countdown is on and if it weren’t for the television deal with Showtime, Strikeforce would have been gone a long time ago.

Cesar Gracie of the famed Gracie family is certainly all smiles as two of his fighters, Diaz and Shields, made the move to the big show that is the UFC and the third one is probably on the way in Melendez.

Going from having one student in the UFC to having four is a welcome change for any martial arts school and Gracie has to be happy with how things are panning out for his guys.

Leon Horne is a writer for Bleacher Report and is part of the BR MMA Interview team, Follow @Leon_Horne

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Cage-Fighting 8-Year-Olds Has Mainstream Media Outraged, but Why?

A video of two eight-year-old boys grappling at a mixed martial arts event in England has the mainstream media, medical associations and the general population up in arms. “Two boys wearing no head gear or padding, wrestling and kicking each …

A video of two eight-year-old boys grappling at a mixed martial arts event in England has the mainstream media, medical associations and the general population up in arms.

“Two boys wearing no head gear or padding, wrestling and kicking each other” is how this Sky News reporter decided to introduce the video. For shame, how could anyone condone this? Children as young as eight years old fighting in a cage like dogs. What is the world coming to?

This writer is certainly not one to condone full contact mixed martial arts contests between young children, that is definitely something best left for the adults who have the mental capacities to make an informed decision. However, if one actually sits back, watches the video and listens to the promoter they’d see that this story is really much ado about nothing.

No pads or head gear they say? You’d figure that would be the very least of the requirements for kids to participate in one of the harshest contact sports on the planet right? One problem though, these kids aren’t kicking or punching each other or using any kind of striking for that matter. All people are watching here is two children competing in a glorified grappling match.

Are people up in arms about the eight-year-olds who are competing in amateur wrestling, Judo or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu? Most certainly not, so why does throwing a cage around the wrestling mat all of a sudden make it a travesty?

Simply put, people are uninformed.

Of course it’s alright if lay people see this video, misinterpret what they are seeing and assume the worst, but for the mainstream media and the British Medical Association (BMA) to make the same mistake is a display of poor judgement and a lack of professional responsibility.

“It’s shocking. Children this young shouldn’t be cage fighting. This kind of contest is usually reserved for experienced adults who have a background in boxing and martial arts,” A spokesperson for the BMA said. “These kids haven’t fully developed physically and would need at least four years’ training before entering into this. If they have been trained properly and are fully supervised there could be a reason for it, but I can’t see it. At the very least they should be wearing head guards, groin guards, hand mitts, and shin and instep protectors.”

Of course, if the children were punching and kicking each other then all that protection would be warranted and cause for concern would be understandable, but do children practicing amateur wrestling or Judo wear all these pads and protection the BMA is talking about? The answer is that they don’t.

Head gear and padding is usually required in sports where the risks of receiving blows to the head are significant. As in amateur wrestling and in Judo, the risk of receiving significant blows to the head in the competition people saw in this video is low because there are no punches or kicks being thrown—plain and simple.

Hopefully the media and medical associations screaming “bloody murder” on this one take some time to really look at this video with a critical eye so that next time a video like this surfaces they will think twice before making up stories where there are none.

Find a video of young children punching and kicking each other in the face in an organized sporting event and this writer will be the first to object, but it is something that will most likely never happen because contrary to what seems to be popular belief, the people involved in combat sports have strong moral fibre too.

Leon Horne is a writer for Bleacher Report, Follow @Leon_Horne

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Jake Shields Loses: A List of Georges St-Pierre’s Former Foes

Jake Shields suffered his second straight loss last night after winning his previous 15 bouts to welterweight up and comer Jake Ellenberger. UFN 25 last night was Shields’ first return to action since losing his welterweight title shot to current champ…

This fight meant a lot to Shields not just because he wanted to get back in the win column, but because of the unfortunate and heart wrenching loss of his Father and manager Jack Shields just a few short weeks ago

Having spoke with Shields this week prior to the Battle on the Bayou, one gets the impression that he will bounce back from the loss.

Hopefully, he takes some time off now to fully grieve the loss of his father, spend time with his family and rebuild himself for his next fight.

Credit must be given to Ellenberger, who looked very sharp last night, landing a beautiful a knee from the clinch that dropped the former Strikeforce champion and spelled the beginning of the end and the first time Shields had been stopped in over 11 years and 33 fights.

Ellenberger seems to be positioning himself for his own title shot, and with one more win over a top 10 opponent, he just might get his wish. That being said, with the way things have shaken out for guys after fighting St-Pierre, Ellenberger may want to cross his fingers and hope that he gets his shot against Condit instead of St-Pierre.

I’m not one to believe in curses, but when you look at the careers of the opponents that have faced St-Pierre since he took back the welterweight title from Matt Serra back in April 2008, most have struggled to get back on track.

Let’s have a look at the former foes of St-Pierre and how their careers have gone since losing to the champion.

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