Author: McKinley Noble

UFC 156: Jose Aldo Injured Above Left Eye, Still Plans to Fight Frankie Edgar

Although Jose Aldo claims to have had one of his best training camps yet, the UFC featherweight champion is talking into his match an injured man.As noticed by ESPN’s Brett Okamoto during pre-fight media scrums on Thursday, Aldo was sporting a cut over…

Although Jose Aldo claims to have had one of his best training camps yet, the UFC featherweight champion is talking into his match an injured man.

As noticed by ESPN’s Brett Okamoto during pre-fight media scrums on Thursday, Aldo was sporting a cut over his left eye.

It seems the gash still has stitches in it, but Aldo’s camp apparently didn’t deem the cut bad enough to pull out of the fight, which is now less than 48 hours away.

When asked about the injury by Okamato, the Brazilian star claimed that it won’t prevent him from stepping into UFC 156 and defending his title:

This could be a problem for Aldo during his main event fight with Frankie Edgar, as the former lightweight champion could intentionally or unintentionally open up that cut with punches.

Should that happen, it could cause Aldo’s relatively small injury to quickly become a major hinderance.

For one reason or another, Aldo has been extremely injury prone ever since joining Zuffa in the aftermath of the UFC/WEC merger.

Before he could even make the first defense of his new belt at UFC 125, Aldo suffered a neck injury (via ESPN) that scrapped him from a bout with Josh Grispi.

That resulting layoff came back to hurt the champion at UFC 129 in Toronto, as a fading Aldo barely survived a horrendous beatdown at the hands of Canadian fighter Mark Hominick.

Even this weekend, Aldo is returning off another injury from last September—a motorcycle accident (via MMA Weekly) that caused him a broken foot (after extra training).

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC Official Rankings: 5 Reasons Why They Could Be Great for MMA

Fighter rankings have been a key point of discussion, contention and scrutiny in the MMA community for several years, whether divisional or pound-for-pound.In fact, it’s a literal science for just about any combat sport, as world rankings play a major …

Fighter rankings have been a key point of discussion, contention and scrutiny in the MMA community for several years, whether divisional or pound-for-pound.

In fact, it’s a literal science for just about any combat sport, as world rankings play a major part in tournament bookings, pay-per-view cards and title shots in various promotions.

Now, the UFC has announced that it’s teaming up with FightMetric to do its own, official, in-house rankings for every single one of its weight classes. Moreover, the MMA media will be a key contributing group, with 90 members submitting event-by-event votes.

But will that be a conflict of interest for fighters, managers, press and the UFC itself?

How will future fights and contract negotiations be affected if athletes know exactly where the UFC places them in the pecking order?

There are a lot of questions that have yet to be answered—but if this system is done right, it could benefit the sport in several important ways. Read on as we cover five key reasons why an official UFC rankings database could actually work.

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Dana White: Anderson Silva vs. Rashad Evans Possible If Evans Wins at UFC 156

Although UFC middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva isn’t getting his hands on Georges St-Pierre or Jon Jones anytime soon, Rashad Evans might fit the bill.During a UFC 156 pre-fight media scrum, Dana White confirmed that Evans may find himself in a match…

Although UFC middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva isn’t getting his hands on Georges St-Pierre or Jon Jones anytime soon, Rashad Evans might fit the bill.

During a UFC 156 pre-fight media scrum, Dana White confirmed that Evans may find himself in a match with “The Spider” if he wins against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in Saturday’s co-main event. But according to MMA reporter Ariel Helwani, that still doesn’t rule out another potential challenger:

Despite the fact that he’s been on the shelf since a July 2012 victory over Mark Munoz, Weidman has been campaigning hard for a title shot upon his return.

Silva’s management isn’t so keen on the idea, though, telling Portuguese site UOL Esporte that Silva would only fight Weidman if the card took place in Brazil, due to Weidman’s perceived lack of pay-per-view drawing power.

Weidman is currently undefeated in the UFC, posting a perfect 9-0 professional MMA record with his last five wins taking place in the Octagon.

However, his only main event presence in an event has been his last fight with Munoz, which pulled a “solid” 211,000 viewers on Fuel TV (via MMA Weekly) while yielding a poor box office tally.

But if the fight took place in Brazil, where Silva is most famous, the UFC could pull off a huge live gate and reasonable PPV numbers.

By contrast, Rashad Evans has proven to be one of the UFC’s biggest draws over the years, headlining 11 events in his 15-fight UFC career.

So far, Evans’ biggest successes have been a title fight against Forrest Griffin at UFC 92 (1 million buys), along with his grudge matches against Quinton Jackson at UFC 144 (1.05 million buys) and former training partner Jones at UFC 145 (700,000 buys).

[Note: All PPV estimates provided courtesy of MMAPayout.com Blue Book.]

Hence, Evans would be the vastly more attractive prospect for Silva, who is said to be one of the highest-paid athletes in the UFC. Rather than Silva making his occasional trip up to the 205-pound division, this matchup will likely only happen if Evans decides to drop to middleweight.

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UFC Fan Video: See Joe Rogan’s Epic Staredown Face During UFC Weigh-Ins

Certain things in the UFC seem like they’ll always be there: insane knockouts, training injuries, bad judging, failed drug tests and other stuff that’s defined the promotion over the years.But Joe Rogan’s presence at pre-fight weigh-ins has been one of…

Certain things in the UFC seem like they’ll always be there: insane knockouts, training injuries, bad judging, failed drug tests and other stuff that’s defined the promotion over the years.

But Joe Rogan‘s presence at pre-fight weigh-ins has been one of the funniest.

From Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard at UFC 136 to Junior dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez at UFC 155 (and many more match-ups in the past), the promotion’s famous color commentator has gained some notoriety for his habit of hovering just off to the side in staredown pics—usually with a comically intense look on his own face.

YouTube member “zombie00713” couldn’t help but notice this either, so he put together a highlight reel containing some of Rogan‘s most hilarious staredown faces over the years. (H/T: Fightlinker)

As Rogan described on a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, it’s a magic moment that he can’t help but witness up-close:

I’m a huge fight fan, I’ve always been a fight fan my whole life.  I don’t have to fake whether or not I’m excited about that. Because these guys—they’re going to circle around each other in the hotels and the lobbies, they might shake hands, they might pose for a picture. They might have to do some presses— together.

They’ve been thinking about nothing but each other for six, eight weeks. Even more… And then they’re standing there and they get off that scale, and they step towards each other, and hold their knuckles in front of each other. And they know in 24 hours… they’re going to throw down. All this s— is coming to an end tomorrow. That moment right there is so intense.

Never change, Joe.

Expect to see more of the Deathsquad frontman’s excited mean-mugging prior to the upcoming UFC 156 card this weekend, as 22 men step up to the scales on Friday, Feb. 1, to make weight for all their respective bouts.

In the main event, Brazilian star Jose Aldo will be headlining the card in Las Vegas as he defends his featherweight title against former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar. This will be Edgar’s debut at 145 pounds after posting two consecutive losses against current champion Benson Henderson.

There’s plenty more on-deck filling out the talent-heavy card, with Rashad Evans vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira as the co-main event, preceded by Alistair Overeem vs. Antonio Silva in a heavyweight title eliminator. Jon Fitch also returns to face his greatest submission threat in Demian Maia, while flyweight title contenders Joseph Benavidez and Ian McCall will start off the pay-per-view on Feb. 2 this Saturday.

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Cris Cyborg to UFC Champion Ronda Rousey: ‘Step Up, B****’

Former Strikeforce women’s champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino wants everyone to know that she isn’t scared of Ronda Rousey.She just doesn’t want to fight while borderline comatose.That was one of a few grievances that the Brazilian featherweight …

Former Strikeforce women’s champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino wants everyone to know that she isn’t scared of Ronda Rousey.

She just doesn’t want to fight while borderline comatose.

That was one of a few grievances that the Brazilian featherweight highlighted in a fired-up letter to Dana White and Rousey on Instagram, calling Rousey a “b—-” and daring her to meet “halfway” at a 140-pound catchweight:

I am not afraid of Rhonda! I will fight her anywhere and anytime for free – everyone knows I barely make 145- but I am willing to sacrifice and meet her half way at 140- I can’t believe dana says I want nothing to do with Rhonda- what he wants me to do is fight Rhonda with both my hands tied behind my back or comatosed-so that she can have a chance-which is what making me fight at 135 is-

to finally shut everyone up – i will fight Rhonda with one hand tied behind my Back at 140lb and still kick her ass and prove that I’m the real champ not her- and let the winner take ALL come on rhonda step up bitch!

This recent outburst stems from an interview that White gave on a recent episode of UFC Tonight on Fuel TV, as the UFC president implied that Cyborg was just afraid to fight in uncharted territory at the 135-pound bantamweight limit.

[Bantamweight is] the only [women’s] division we have. It’s been real interesting. You know, I’ve been in the fight game since I was 19 years old and I’ve been doing this for 15 years and what I get out of this deal with Cyborg is that she wants nothing to do with Ronda Rousey. She does not want to fight Ronda Rousey.

No matter what Cyborg wants, Rousey has made it clear that she has no intention of moving up in weight to fight her rival.

Of course, Cyborg hasn’t helped her own position due to a positive test for anabolic steroids from January 2012, which resulted in the former champion being suspended for a year and stripped of her title.

As Rousey previously told Inside MMA, she believes the positive drug test is simply proof that Cyborg was “cheating for her entire career” and “not as awesome as she thinks she is.”

Regardless, that superfight could be snuffed out in the planning stages if Rousey loses her title to Liz Carmouche at the upcoming UFC 157 card on Feb. 23 at the Anaheim Honda Center.

Rousey was initially pegged as a 15-to-1 favorite when the match was first lined up—but according to BestFightOdds, that gap has widened even more, making Rousey an 18-to-1 favorite with some online sports books.

UFC 157 will also feature a co-main event title eliminator between Dan Henderson and former light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida, with the winner assumed to earn a title shot against the victor of Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen at UFC 159.

Despite being the only person on the card with a title belt, Rousey has also drawn some heat from certain MMA fans for headlining UFC 157 in her first bout with the promotion. In turn, this marks the first time in five instances over three years that “Hendo” has not main-evented an MMA card.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Cris Cyborg to UFC Champion Ronda Rousey: ‘Step Up, B****’

Former Strikeforce women’s champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino wants everyone to know that she isn’t scared of Ronda Rousey.She just doesn’t want to fight while borderline comatose.That was one of a few grievances that the Brazilian featherweight …

Former Strikeforce women’s champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino wants everyone to know that she isn’t scared of Ronda Rousey.

She just doesn’t want to fight while borderline comatose.

That was one of a few grievances that the Brazilian featherweight highlighted in a fired-up letter to Dana White and Rousey on Instagram, calling Rousey a “b—-” and daring her to meet “halfway” at a 140-pound catchweight:

I am not afraid of Rhonda! I will fight her anywhere and anytime for free – everyone knows I barely make 145- but I am willing to sacrifice and meet her half way at 140- I can’t believe dana says I want nothing to do with Rhonda- what he wants me to do is fight Rhonda with both my hands tied behind my back or comatosed-so that she can have a chance-which is what making me fight at 135 is-

to finally shut everyone up – i will fight Rhonda with one hand tied behind my Back at 140lb and still kick her ass and prove that I’m the real champ not her- and let the winner take ALL come on rhonda step up bitch!

This recent outburst stems from an interview that White gave on a recent episode of UFC Tonight on Fuel TV, as the UFC president implied that Cyborg was just afraid to fight in uncharted territory at the 135-pound bantamweight limit.

[Bantamweight is] the only [women’s] division we have. It’s been real interesting. You know, I’ve been in the fight game since I was 19 years old and I’ve been doing this for 15 years and what I get out of this deal with Cyborg is that she wants nothing to do with Ronda Rousey. She does not want to fight Ronda Rousey.

No matter what Cyborg wants, Rousey has made it clear that she has no intention of moving up in weight to fight her rival.

Of course, Cyborg hasn’t helped her own position due to a positive test for anabolic steroids from January 2012, which resulted in the former champion being suspended for a year and stripped of her title.

As Rousey previously told Inside MMA, she believes the positive drug test is simply proof that Cyborg was “cheating for her entire career” and “not as awesome as she thinks she is.”

Regardless, that superfight could be snuffed out in the planning stages if Rousey loses her title to Liz Carmouche at the upcoming UFC 157 card on Feb. 23 at the Anaheim Honda Center.

Rousey was initially pegged as a 15-to-1 favorite when the match was first lined up—but according to BestFightOdds, that gap has widened even more, making Rousey an 18-to-1 favorite with some online sports books.

UFC 157 will also feature a co-main event title eliminator between Dan Henderson and former light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida, with the winner assumed to earn a title shot against the victor of Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen at UFC 159.

Despite being the only fighter in the lineup with a title belt, Rousey has also drawn some heat from certain MMA fans for headlining UFC 157 in her first bout with the promotion. In turn, this marks the first time in five events over three years that “Hendo” has not main-evented an MMA card.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com