Author: Michael David Smith

Vitor Belfort’s Camp Not Sweating Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen

Filed under: Affliction, UFCIt’s been more than a year since UFC President Dana White first identified Vitor Belfort as the man who could dethrone middleweight champion Anderson Silva. That was in June of 2009, when Belfort was preparing to fight on an…

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It’s been more than a year since UFC President Dana White first identified Vitor Belfort as the man who could dethrone middleweight champion Anderson Silva. That was in June of 2009, when Belfort was preparing to fight on an Affliction card that never happened, and Silva was preparing to fight Forrest Griffin after sleepwalking through a win over Thales Leites.

Now Silva is preparing to fight Chael Sonnen after sleepwalking through a win over Demian Maia, and Belfort is recovering from a shoulder injury that prevented him from fighting Silva and allowed both Maia and Sonnen to leapfrog him in the UFC’s middleweight hierarchy. But Belfort is back to training after shoulder surgery, and in his training camp, the focus is on fighting Silva.

Strikeforce Needs to Answer, ‘What’s Next?’

Filed under: StrikeforceOn July 3, Brock Lesnar beat Shane Carwin in the UFC’s biggest heavyweight fight of the year. Cain Velasquez was sitting cageside and had already been declared next in line, and the UFC soon said Lesnar would fight Velasquez in …

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On July 3, Brock Lesnar beat Shane Carwin in the UFC’s biggest heavyweight fight of the year. Cain Velasquez was sitting cageside and had already been declared next in line, and the UFC soon said Lesnar would fight Velasquez in October at UFC 121. Fans are already getting excited about that fight, and the UFC’s heavyweight division hasn’t lost any of the momentum the Lesnar-Carwin fight built.

A week before Lesnar beat Carwin, Fabricio Werdum beat Fedor Emelianenko in Strikeforce’s biggest heavyweight fight of the year. Alistair Overeem was sitting cageside and was expected to be next in line, but the three weeks since that fight have provided nothing but confusion about what’s next for those three heavyweights.

Strikeforce puts on plenty of good fights, but its biggest problem as a promotion is an inability to do what the UFC did when it announced Velasquez vs. Lesnar: Strikeforce never has a good answer when fans want to know, “What’s next?”

Midseason MMA Awards: Top Fighter

Filed under: UFCStop and think for a moment about where Chris Leben was in his mixed martial arts career at the beginning of 2010: In his most recent fight he had been submitted by the eminently mediocre Jake Rosholt. Before that he had served a suspen…

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Stop and think for a moment about where Chris Leben was in his mixed martial arts career at the beginning of 2010: In his most recent fight he had been submitted by the eminently mediocre Jake Rosholt. Before that he had served a suspension for testing positive for steroids following his loss to Michael Bisping. It had been 22 months since he last won a fight, and he was probably one more loss away from getting cut from the UFC.

But what a 2010 it’s been: Leben is 3-0 this year, he’s cashed bonus checks for Fight of the Night and Knockout of the Night, and he’s gone from being known mostly as a guy who acted like a jerk on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter to getting a huge ovation from the crowd after winning the co-main event at the UFC’s biggest card of the year.

In Dan Henderson, Anderson Silva Has Beaten a Better Version of Chael Sonnen

Filed under: UFC

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has generally kept a low profile over the last couple months and let Chael Sonnen take the lead in hyping their August 7 fight. Sonnen has delivered on the hype department, making a bunch of pr…

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UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has generally kept a low profile over the last couple months and let Chael Sonnen take the lead in hyping their August 7 fight. Sonnen has delivered on the hype department, making a bunch of preposterous and at times offensive comments about the champion.

The UFC has now released a video in which Silva responds to some of Sonnen’s statement, and although Silva does blast Sonnen for the “idiotic things coming out of his mouth,” the more interesting comment from Silva is the substantive analysis he makes of Sonnen as a wrestler. While Sonnen claims that Silva will struggle against an opponent with his wrestling skills, Silva notes that in Dan Henderson, he’s already beaten someone better.

Fabricio Werdum in No Rush to Give Fedor Emelianenko His Rematch

Filed under: Strikeforce, M-1 GlobalWithin minutes of Fabricio Werdum beating Fedor Emelianenko on June 26, Fedor’s handlers at M-1 Global began calling for a rematch, and in the weeks since then, Fedor’s promotion has been steadfast in its insistence …

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Within minutes of Fabricio Werdum beating Fedor Emelianenko on June 26, Fedor’s handlers at M-1 Global began calling for a rematch, and in the weeks since then, Fedor’s promotion has been steadfast in its insistence that the only fight it wants to make is Fedor-Werdum 2, hopefully in the fall.

But it takes two to make a fight, and Werdum does not appear to be on board with the idea of a quick rematch.

For Chris Leben, Most of UFC 116 Victory Is a Blur

Filed under: MMA Videos, UFCIn the second round of their UFC 116 fight, Chris Leben and Yoshihiro Akiyama had an exchange of punches that saw Akiyama connect cleanly to Leben’s chin, and Leben somehow shake off the punches and keep going.

But while Le…

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In the second round of their UFC 116 fight, Chris Leben and Yoshihiro Akiyama had an exchange of punches that saw Akiyama connect cleanly to Leben’s chin, and Leben somehow shake off the punches and keep going.

But while Leben was able to continue and ultimately force Akiyama to tap to a triangle choke with 20 seconds remaining in the third round, he says he wasn’t all there mentally after that exchange with Akiyama. In fact, Leben says he couldn’t even remember most of what happened in the aftermath of the fight.