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Why Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira Should Call It Quits and Retire from MMA

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is a fighter fans don’t want to see retire. Many know it’s time for him to hang up the gloves, but he has been around for so long and conducted himself respectfully during that time.He has become a fan favorite and—…

He has become a fan favorite and—like many others, including Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva—fans don’t want to see him walk off into the sunset.

The problem is that even though Nogueira’s surgery to his arm was successful. it still adds another scar to his ever-growing list. He is starting to accumulate damage from his fights that he wouldn’t have in the past. Mix that with the fact he is growing older, and it doesn’t look good for Nogueira.

A great counterpoint to calling for Nogueira’s retirement is that he just knocked out young heavyweight Brendan Schaub in his second-to-last fight. Nogueira obviously still has something left to give in the cage.

However, this writer has always been a proponent of letting fighters leave when they still have something to show, not after they have burned out. It may feel unfair to fans who want to see them step into the cage a few more times, but after what they give the fans it seems only right.

And as for Nogueira’s recent record it is true he beat Schaub while winning Knockout of the Night, but he also hasn’t won many other fights before that.

His current record in his last five fights shows he is 2-3, but one of those wins was against Randy Couture, who was already getting ready to retire and didn’t seem to have his heart into fighting anymore. That isn’t to say Couture was lazy for their fight, just that he was a little removed from it and that he was at the tail end of his career.

The fight went the distance.

In between those three fights he has been knocked out twice and, in his last fight, submitted. Before then it had never happened before. The submission in his last fight broke his arm so badly he needed surgery. That means a new injury to heal from and, at 35 years old, time off he can’t afford.

Those losses, along with their brutality, should tell fans and journalists alike that Nogueira is starting to slow down.

It doesn’t mean he couldn’t still compete in MMA or even that he would lose every fight. It just seems he is done at the highest level, and for a man who was once a top fighter in PRIDE and the UFC to be asked to continue when he can’t be on that level anymore is a little cruel.

Nogueira still lost a fight to a top fighter in MMA. He could try to go out on a win, but it usually doesn’t end that way for most guys who try to do it.

When he does retire he will have fighters to train and perhaps some commentary he could do in Brazil. The future looks bright for Nogueira should he leave the cage.

All he needs to do to claim it is let go of the past.

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UFC 141: The Cerrone-Diaz Press Conference Scrap—Why Fans Shouldn’t Be Shocked

Donald Cerrone and Nate Diaz had already seemed to have some bad blood walking into their fight at UFC 141. They don’t like each other, and though both have tried to convince fans and journalists alike that it wasn’t personal, at the press conference t…

Its not surprising that Diaz and Cerrone let their emotions get the best of them. Neither is exactly friendly when it comes to fighting, and both can get downright nasty when they want to. Cerrone openly showed rage toward one of his opponents in the past when he squared off against Jamie Varner in the WEC.

Diaz has also shown contempt for many of his fellow fighters before his fights.

So it isn’t shocking that both of these men let themselves go a little too far when faced with each other.

And when it comes to MMA, it’s surprising that more fighters aren’t like them.

That isn’t to say that their actions are something that should be emulated. The sport is young enough and with enough detractors that such actions would only hurt it.

While it would be ideal for all fighters to be removed from such negative actions and emotions, it isn’t always possible. Many fighters are able to split fighting from their personal lives and make it so that there are no unhealthy issues before a fight.

But at the core of MMA is a sport where one man is trying to inflict punishment on another and in doing so get more money for himself. If he wins he has not only beaten his opponent, but in effect taken money from him as well.

Many men could handle this. Diaz and Cerrone just aren’t those kind of fighters.

They don’t want to make friends and they want to be able to keep fighting full-time.

It may fly against the very things that we as a society tell fighters to do, but it taps down into a primordial sense of something that has been there since the dawn of man.

The urge to be able to have the most resources at one’s disposal and to be the victor. It may not be pretty, but it is a part of fighting and humanity’s darker nature.

Fans shouldn’t be surprised when fighters choose to live in it.

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Why Roy Nelson’s Fight Against Fabricio Werdum Will Be His Last in the UFC

Roy Nelson has finally slimmed down and at UFC 143, he gets to show if his new physique will get him to the top of the heavyweight mountain.The only problem is that this time, he isn’t facing a worn out Mirko Cro Cop, who was a great striker but who ag…

Roy Nelson has finally slimmed down and at UFC 143, he gets to show if his new physique will get him to the top of the heavyweight mountain.

The only problem is that this time, he isn’t facing a worn out Mirko Cro Cop, who was a great striker but who age has diminished with time.

He is facing Fedor Emelianenko conqueror Fabricio Werdum, who may be coming off a loss to Alistair Overeem but is still dangerous.

This isn’t to say that on paper Nelson doesn’t have a chance. Werdum may be a brilliant Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, but so is Nelson. Both are black belts in said discipline and both have practiced it for years. Both Nelson nor Werdum have held those ranks for a while.

The only thing that Nelson has done recently is slim down. He finally has lost the extra fat that alienated him among some fans and his boss and head of the UFC Dana White.

It’s not surprising that some were negative towards Nelson. It’s hard to take a fighter seriously when they don’t seem to take themselves seriously. That isn’t to say that fighters shouldn’t be allowed to joke and have a good time, but that they at least physically take care of themselves.

After all, fans pay good money to see them fight and when they don’t put forth their best effort and seem to have something that they could have done better, fans tend to get angry. Nelson might not care about that, but if he had retired without losing the extra weight, it might have plagued him.

The only problem is that Nelson is now 35 and has fought most of his career as a heavier man carrying extra weight.How much does the loss of that weight free up his ability to strike?

How much extra cardio does it give him?

Will it affect his ability to use his weight to stifle his opponent?

Nelson may have trained at a lighter weight for his fight with Cro Cop and is probably doing the same thing for this fight against Werdum, but without the benefit of multiple years of fighting at his new weight, it’s going to be hard for him to answer all of these questions.

Werdum, on the other hand, has consistently stayed about the same weight throughout his career and, at 34, he probably knows what his body can and can’t do.

And even though Werdum is coming off a loss, it is Nelson who is only one fight removed from a two-fight losing streak.

Add in that he has only had a recent win against a worn Cro Cop and it spells out more trouble for Nelson than Werdum.

He also has had past problems with Dana White and if he is 1-3 in his last four fights, it would give White an excuse to cut him.

So if Nelson does step into the cage and lose, which is something that may very well happen, it may just end up with him getting a pink slip at the same time.

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MMA’s Future: Why, If Boxing Did ‘Die,’ It Would Actually Hurt MMA

Boxing is dying and MMA is killing it.That line has been said by many journalists and fans alike throughout the years. Yet boxing has been around since the Grecian Olympics, where it competed side by side with wrestling. That may …

Boxing is dying and MMA is killing it.

That line has been said by many journalists and fans alike throughout the years. Yet boxing has been around since the Grecian Olympics, where it competed side by side with wrestling. That may not be the exact same thing as MMA, but it means that boxing is used to competition.

Some fans hope it will happen. Others hope not, as they are a fan of both.

Some just don’t care.

But everyone who is a fan of mixed martial arts should care if boxing goes under, because if it does, so does the UFC’s main competitor.

Let’s face it, the UFC is MMA to most casual fans and there is not one promotion that can possibly keep up with them. Bellator may have just been bought by Viacom, but if that company doesn’t turn a healthy profit fast enough, they just might decide to wash their hands of it.

That doesn’t even factor in that UFC is like Google.

When someone goes to search something they say they are going to “google” it.

When most people watch MMA they say they are going to see “UFC.”

When a name or an acronym gains that much power in society, it’s hard to fight it.

That means there is only one other combat organization that can keep up with the UFC, and that is boxing. The entire sport may be rife with different promoters and fighters, but it still has clout that has been stacked over decades of being in the public eye.

Even though it has been tarnished in recent years, it is still a sport lots of people recognize.

And it’s also part of the reason that MMA tries so hard.

The UFC is impressive but a lot of fans jumped ship from boxing because they were bored of seeing mismatches and having to pay through the nose to see any match that could be deemed slightly competitive. When MMA came along, many jumped at the opportunity.

The UFC seems to have acknowledged this and has put on stacked cards from top to bottom for the most part. But as they have pulled away from boxing and put on more events, some of those cards have started to thin.

Still, overall the UFC and MMA give fans a great product, but it is worth remembering that at one time, boxing did too.

Until it realized it didn’t have to. Boxing had no competitors for its fans and after a while it let them run the sport into the ground.

Boxing may be a niche sport now, but it is still around and because of it, MMA still has to outdo them every time out so that they can stay in first place.

And so while both sports fight for the fans’ money and attention, MMA fans get to win in the end.

Now all boxing has to do is not give up and disappear.

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Why Miguel Torres Needs To Sign with Bellator Immediately

Miguel Torres was recently fired from the UFC quickly after making a rape joke on Twitter.He later apologized for the tweet which read, “If a rape van was called a surprise van, more women wouldn’t mind going for rides in them. Everyone loves a s…

Miguel Torres was recently fired from the UFC quickly after making a rape joke on Twitter.

He later apologized for the tweet which read, “If a rape van was called a surprise van, more women wouldn’t mind going for rides in them. Everyone loves a surprise.”

Not the most brilliant thing to put out there on the Internet.

Even though it might have been a bit harsh to fire Torres for such a comment, it wasn’t completely out of bounds to do so. Some other fighters have been given more slack than Torres, and though it is uncertain why, there is one thing that is obvious.

Torres is in need of a job because it doesn’t seem that this is going to be one of those things that Dana White, the president of the UFC, is going to reverse anytime soon.

Torres may not be a champion anymore as he was when he was the WEC bantamweight titleholder, but he is still an ex-UFC fighter coming off a win. His name still has a lot of clout.

The longer he stays away from the cage the more his name value drops. He needs to quickly get it back out there in the MMA world so that fans feel like keeping up with him. That said, if he doesn’t have a national medium in which he can show off his skills then it means nothing.

That is where Bellator comes in.

Not only are they the second-largest promoter in America and arguably the world, they were just purchased by Viacom. That means they also have economic stability in the rocky world of mixed martial arts.

They also seem to have trouble signing big names in an effort to compete with the UFC. That could be leverage for him to use to get serious paycheck.

He also might have an easier amount of competition in Bellator. That isn’t to say he could become champion without trying, but that it won’t be as difficult. A lot of the fighters in Bellator are unproven fighters who haven’t ever made it to the big show.

Some of this might be luck or timing, but some of it could be that they never measured up. Bellator could have a second shot at being champion.

Between a better potential paycheck and another shot at glory, Torres should take the opportunity in front of him. He may have made a mistake by tweeting an insensitive statement, but he can turn a negative and make it a positive.

Torres was removed as a main player from the WEC to be a cog in the UFC machine. He didn’t really stand out in the promotion. It is weak as an excuse, but it might have been what made him willing to send out such a shocking statement. He wanted to stand out.

Now that he is no longer there he still can do it.

So, it seems there might be life outside the UFC after all.

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Brock Lesnar: 10 Reasons He’s Better off in the WWE

Brock Lesnar is a former UFC heavyweight champion. There is a good chance that if he decides to improve his stand-up that he just might become champion again. It is hard seeing it happen against current belt holder Junior Dos Santos co…

Lesnar has also been a world heavyweight champion somewhere else though—the WWE. If things don’t work out in the cage, he could always make a return at the end of his UFC contract.

In the end, it might be better for him, because with the amount of elite strikers that are there and those that are coming from Strikeforce, the division is going to get crowded. That, combined with Lesnar’s inability to take a shot, is going to leave him looking weak and dispel the aura of invincibility that fans seem to respond to.

If he does cut ties with the UFC, though, it might help him to keep that myth about him and can even help him in the ring should he make a return.

Starting with…

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