After completing his maiden voyage into fight promotion with WAR MMA, Nick Diaz will explore the possibility of a second event, according to his legal representative Jonathan Tweedale. “The show went great,” he told MMA Fighting’s A…
After completing his maiden voyage into fight promotion with WAR MMA, Nick Diaz will explore the possibility of a second event, according to his legal representative Jonathan Tweedale.
“The show went great,” he told MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani. “It looked superb on the webstream and there were more spectators in the house than expected. We are very pleased with how it went.
“The plan is to fully debrief from the first show, see what we can learn, see what can be improved, and then turn to planning a second show,” he continued. “That process will likely not take long.”
Although Tweedale declined to offer numbers on the gate or attendance figures for the show, which took place at Stockon Arena, the city’s local paper, The Record, estimated a crowd of 3,500.
Tweedale was a bit more forthcoming with information on the web stream numbers.
“As of [Saturday] night, WAR MMA had been watched by the equivalent of a sold-out football stadium,” he said. “Reaction from fans in the arena and online has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive.”
The show is still available online on a pay-what-you-want basis on Diaz’s website.
The 12-fight card was headlined by a match between former UFC fighter Daniel Roberts and Justin Baesman. In a split-decision, Baesman was awarded the win.
The idea of WAR MMA was to bring a new home promotion to the Bay Area after the dissolution of Strikeforce. Diaz’s connection to Stockton made the pairing a logical choice, but when asked about a venue for a possible second show, Tweedale would only offer a coy response.
Finalists were announced Monday for the 2012 World MMA Awards, run by Fighters Only magazine.
In their fifth year, the World MMA Awards honor winners in 21 categories across the mixed martial arts world, as voted on by fans.
Women’s …
Finalists were announced Monday for the 2012 World MMA Awards, run by Fighters Only magazine.
In their fifth year, the World MMA Awards honor winners in 21 categories across the mixed martial arts world, as voted on by fans.
Women’s star Ronda Rousey leads the pack in this year’s nominations. The Strikeforce bantamweight champion was named a finalist for four awards, including Fighter of the Year. Daniel Cormier, Nate Diaz, Ben Henderson and Jon Jones were also nominated for best fighter.
Rousey was also named a finalist for Women’s Fighter of the Year, Breakthrough Fighter of the Year, and Submission of the Year (vs. Miesha Tate).
MMAFighting.com was named finalist for MMA Media Source of the Year. And MMAFighting.com and Fuel TV reporter Ariel Helwani, winner of the last two MMA Journalist of the Year awards, looks to make it three in a row as he was again nominated for the honor.
The awards cover the period from Sept. 1, 2011, to Sept. 30, 2012. Voting ends Dec. 31. Award winners will be announced at a ceremony in Las Vegas in January, date and location TBD.
“The MMA Beat” is MMAFighting.com’s new web series where a group of journalists come together to break down the biggest headlines in the sport today. Think of it as our version of the famed “Sports Reporters” show.
On this inaugur…
“The MMA Beat” is MMAFighting.com’s new web series where a group of journalists come together to break down the biggest headlines in the sport today. Think of it as our version of the famed “Sports Reporters” show.
On this inaugural edition, our own Ariel Helwani, Mike Chiappetta and Luke Thomas discuss the first three quarters of the UFC’s 2012, the evolution of the Jon Jones brand, the possibility of Georges St-Pierre vs. Anderson Silva and Brock Lesnar vs. Fedor Emelianenko superfights happening, whether UFC fighters need to form a union, the new World Series of Fighting promotion, and much more.
Jon Fitch will draw one of the UFC’s top young guns in his next outing.
The longtime welterweight contender is set to square off with Brazilian Erick Silva at UFC 153, MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani has learned. Sources with knowled…
Jon Fitch will draw one of the UFC’s top young guns in his next outing.
The longtime welterweight contender is set to square off with Brazilian Erick Silva at UFC 153, MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani has learned. Sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed the two had verbally agreed to the pairing.
Fitch was supposed to face Aaron Simpson in July, only to be forced out after suffering a knee injury. The setback apparently won’t keep him on the shelf long. Upon returning, Fitch will be attempting to win for the first time in three fights. At UFC 127, he fought to a draw with B.J. Penn, and in his follow-up match at UFC 141, he was knocked out by Johny Hendricks, marking the first time he had been finished since 2002.
Fitch is 23-4-1 with 1 no contest.
Silva has looked spectacular in all three of his octagon outings. He debuted with a knockout of Luis Ramos at UFC 134, then appeared to earn a second straight first-round KO at UFC 142, only to be controversially disqualified for strikes to the back of the head. Silva then followed that up with a first-round submission win over Charlie Brenneman at June’s UFC on FX 3.
Silva is 14-2 with 1 no contest.
Fitch will be tasked with facing Silva on his home soil, as the bout emanates from Rio on October 13.
It’s Summer Saturday around these parts, so how about a preview of UFC Octagon Girl Brittney Palmer’s upcoming 2013 calendar shoot? No objections? Great. Watch the video below.
It’s Summer Saturday around these parts, so how about a preview of UFC Octagon Girl Brittney Palmer‘s upcoming 2013 calendar shoot? No objections? Great. Watch the video below.
Nine straight wins in the UFC. Seven via stoppage. Five over competitors ranked in the Top 10.
At this stage, there’s no doubt about it: Junior dos Santos is on the greatest heavyweight run in UFC history.
The most impressive ove…
Nine straight wins in the UFC. Seven via stoppage. Five over competitors ranked in the Top 10.
At this stage, there’s no doubt about it: Junior dos Santos is on the greatest heavyweight run in UFC history.
The most impressive overall heavyweight streak in the sport’s history, of course, belongs to Fedor Emelianenko.
But given the level of dominance the Salvador, Brazil resident has displayed in the Octagon, and the absence of damage he’s taken in the process, it’s conceivable that sometime down the road, dos Santos could potentially wrest that crown as well, given that he’s not likely to face the freak-show fighters and middleweights that appear a bit too often on the Russian great’s record.
But that’s a ways off. In the interim, we’re presented with a shuffle of the 265-pound deck after back-to-back weekends of heavyweight slugfests.
1. Junior dos Santos (1) Simply the best, for all the reasons listed above.
2. Cain Velasquez (3) Former UFC champ showed he’s focused and ready for another shot at the title.
3. Daniel Cormier (6) When an Olympic-caliber wrestler can throw the variety of strikes Cormier did against Josh Barnett, and do so with a broken hand, well, that’s bad news for everyone else.
4. Fabricio Werdum (5) Werdum is 6-2 two in his past eight fights, with one of those losses to JDS and the other to the guy currently suspended for cheating.
5. Frank Mir (4) Yeah, he looked terrible against Dos Santos. The champ has a way of doing that to his opponent.
6. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (NR) At 35, will “Big Nog” be able to return to his previous form after Mir broke his arm? We’ll find out in this summer when he returns and faces Cheick Kongo.
7. Alistair Overeem (2). When your license is denied because you tested for levels of testosterone that are nearly off the charts, sorry, you don’t get ranked any higher than this while you’re under suspension.
8. Josh Barnett (7) It’s hard to drop Barnett too far, since Cormier handed him his first loss since Dec. 31, 2006. It’s also hard to rank him much higher since there were one too many softies in his eight-fight win streak. So he stays put.
9. Shane Carwin (9) In danger of dropping off this list soon, since his last fight was in mid-June of last year, but the good news is that the former UFC interim champ been cleared for his return.
10. Stefan Struve (NR) Don’t look now, but “The Skyscraper” has won five of his past six fights.
