At UFC 148, we the fans want…no, we insist that for one night only, Tito Ortiz, he of “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” fame, assume said moniker when he steps into the Octagon and brings the curtain down on a storied career. The last sighti…
At UFC 148, we the fans want…no, we insist that for one night only, Tito Ortiz, he of “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” fame, assume said moniker when he steps into the Octagon and brings the curtain down on a storied career.
The last sighting of “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” was at UFC 132 when he further derailed the title aspirations of Ryan “Darth” Bader courtesy of vicious guillotine choke.
With said victory, he elected to assume the sobriquet of “The People’s Champ”—a moniker which equates to bad boy gone good.
However, following that impressive showing, he suffered an ignominious defeat to Rashad Evans, and next came a first-round drumming at the hands of Antonio “Lil Nog” Nogueira.
Forget Chael Sonnen’s rhetoric, cast aside the surly antics of Nick Diaz and stifle the “Rampage” that is Quinton Jackson, because this trio of soi-disant bad boys ain’t got nothing on MMA’s original villainous villain.
A trilogy battle beckons against old foe Forrest Griffin—with one apiece, it’s a prerequisite that “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” comes back for UFC 148.
Vinny Magalhaes who has been training Chael Sonnen in the art of submission defense, has predicted the self-styled “American Gangster” can submit perennial UFC 185-pound titlist Anderson Silva at UFC 148. Per an interview with Eduardo Ferre…
Vinny Magalhaes who has been training Chael Sonnen in the art of submission defense, has predicted the self-styled “American Gangster” can submit perennial UFC 185-pound titlist Anderson Silva at UFC 148. Per an interview with Eduardo Ferreira and Tatame.com:
What are your predictions for this fight? Does Sonnen have chances to win?
[…] “Anderson might be much better then Chael on the floor, much better on the stand-up, but Chael’s style is hard on Anderson and I believe it will go the same way as the first one did: Chael taking him down and controlling him from the top. If he believes in his game, I believe he can submit Anderson this time. Now, if he doesn’t submit him, he’s gonna win via points.”
Sonnen, who has eight submission losses in 11 defeats, including Silva’s triangle-armbar he fell victim to at UFC 117, acquired the services of Magalhaes to shore up his oftentimes ailing Achilles’ heel.
The accomplished BJJ practitioner (second-degree black-belt) was paid double wages for two-weeks graft to ensure Sonnen learned at least the rudimentary arts of submission defense, particularly the aforementioned triangle-armbar and the triangle-choke (both of which have caused Sonnen problems in the past).
In addition, the former M-1 light heavyweight champion worked on tweaking his top control, which was an indicative aspect of his stratagem in his first fight with Silva.
Magalhaes believes said facet, if employed to the best of Sonnen’s abilities, could result in a submission victory come fight night.
UFC 148 is scheduled for July 7, 2012, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.
Michael Bisping says Chael Sonnen’s confidence and style will be the overriding factors in defeating Anderson Silva when the pair lock horns in the main event of UFC 148. From Bisping, originally reported by Fiveouncesopain.com:
“As well all know, sty…
Michael Bisping says Chael Sonnen’s confidence and style will be the overriding factors in defeating Anderson Silva when the pair lock horns in the main event of UFC 148.
“As well all know, styles make fights, and Chael Sonnen’s style as a fighter is a bad recipe for Anderson Silva,” began Bisping on this week’s episode of UFC Tonight.
“You have to be a madman to bet against Anderson Silva. The guy continues to win fights and every time he does it, it looks like something out of a video game,” he continued. “But if you look at the previous fight, Chael did very, very well for a long time. I believe the fact he did so well for so long is going to give Chael a lot of confidence. He’s gonna come into this fight very confident and that’s a big thing in a fight. Confidence is a huge thing. And I think it’s a bad style match-up and with the confidence I think Chael gets it done.”
Back at UFC on FOX 2, “The Count” and “Uncle Chael” faced off in an eliminator bout to determine who would vie for Silva’s 185-pound crown. In a closely contested fight, it was the Oregon native who took the honors; that said, some observers believed Bisping just about edged it and should’ve taken home the decision.
With regards to his analysis of Silva and Sonnen’s first encounter at UFC 117, Bisping is right—styles do make fights, and the confidence garnered from that first meeting should, in all honesty, stand the 35-year-old in good stead.
Prior to succumbing to a triangle-armbar submission in the final frame of the aforementioned meeting, Sonnen had taken Silva down at will and even out struck the consummate striker, to boot.
Nevertheless, that bout took place nearly two years ago. Sonnen tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone following the match and, as a consequence, received a 12-month ban (later reduced to six months on appeal).
Furthermore, his performance against Bisping (his last outing) was way below par. In contrast, Silva’s last fight was an impressive stoppage of Yushin Okami.
With that in mind, it’s really hard to make a case for Sonnen (27-11- MMA, 6-4 UFC) usurping “The Spider’s” title, especially with regards to his confidence going into the fight. However, style-wise, his wrestling pedigree will pose problems for Silva.
UFC 148 is scheduled for July 7, 2012 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Mike Tyson, boxing’s most enigmatic figure, let rip with a few expletives in his quest for MMA fighters to earn more money akin to the millionaire status afforded some of the sweet science’s elite pugilists. Tyson made his points to the MMA…
Mike Tyson, boxing’s most enigmatic figure, let rip with a few expletives in his quest for MMA fighters to earn more money akin to the millionaire status afforded some of the sweet science’s elite pugilists.
Nothing personal to nobody, they gotta be (expletive) millionaires. They gotta get the (expletive) money they deserve. How is (MMA) going to be bigger than boxing if they don’t have cash? These guys need to be multi-multimillionaires. They need to have their big (expletive) mansions, their big cars and if not, they should be able to take care of their family. They should be able to live without fighting no more.
It’s been well-documented that most professional combatants are paid a pittance in comparison to their pugilistic contemporaries, especially those on the undercards.
However, depending on pay-per-view sales, main attraction fighters like Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre are more or less guaranteed several of millions.
That said, for UFC 129, St-Pierre’s overall salary amounted to $2.5 million.
Nevertheless, that still pales into significance to what two of boxing’s pound-for-pound kingpins Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao accrue for a night’s work.
In his last outing against Miguel Cotto, the recently incarcerated Mayweather took home in excess of $30 million dollars.
Conversely, Pacquiao was handed a handsome cheque of $26 million following the recent loss of his WBO welterweight title to Timothy Bradley, who himself wasn’t left out of pocket as he amassed a career-high $5 million.
Now contrast that with the payouts for UFC 126 (PPV non-inclusive) below:
Anderson Silva: $200,000 (no win bonus) Vitor Belfort: $275,000
Forrest Griffin: $275,000 ($125,000 to show, $150,000 to win) Rich Franklin: $75,000
Jon Jones: $140,000 ($70,000 to show, $70,000 to win) Ryan Bader: $20,000
Jake Ellenberger: $32,000 ($16,000 to show, $16,000 to win) Carlos Eduardo Rocha: $8,000
The former undisputed heavyweight champion, who squandered the millions he earned during his boxing career, is an enthusiastic supporter of MMA, and if going by his recent advocacy for better pay, it must be said, has the sport’s best interests at heart.
Chael Sonnen paid Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu wizard Vinny Magalhaes double the amount in his quest to dethrone reigning 185-pound titlist Anderson Silva in their upcoming grudge match at UFC 148. From Magalhaes, originally reported by Fightlinker.com: I don&r…
Chael Sonnen paid Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu wizard Vinny Magalhaes double the amount in his quest to dethrone reigning 185-pound titlist Anderson Silva in their upcoming grudge match at UFC 148.
I don’t want to talk about amounts, because my management was the one dealing with the whole money situation. But he did pay more than my management asked. We asked for a certain amount, and he came up with much more. We asked for an amount for two weeks of training, and he came up with an amount which would’ve entitled him to four weeks of training. So how can I not respect the guy? He paid me double. On Chael’s check … you know how they have a line for what the check is for? He wrote ‘Defeat Silva.’ So I kept a copy, because I thought that was pretty funny.
“Uncle Chael’s” main objective in enlisting the services of Magalhaes was to shore up his submission defense.
Back at UFC 117, the Oregon native was on the brink of wresting the title for Silva’s grasp only to fall victim to a triangle-armbar submission in the latter stages of the final frame.
That said, throughout his MMA career, Sonnen, a former NCAA Division-l standout, has been overly susceptible to the art of Jiu-jitsu—of the 11 losses on his record, eight have come via submission.
Apropos, Magalhaes, the former UFC resident and M-I champion, has come under fire from his fellow countrymen for consorting with the enemy, so much so that he has now been deemed a traitor.
However, the 28-year-old Vegas inhabitant was quick to point out that training Sonnen was strictly business and he has nothing personal against the Sao Paulo-born Silva.
UFC 148 is scheduled for July 7, 2012, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.
Chael Sonnen is on the cusp of something big if he can unseat the 185-pound-title-holding Anderson Silva at UFC 148.However, a win for “Uncle Chael” means a whole lot of pain from thereon in—he won’t able to survive the ensuing …
Chael Sonnen is on the cusp of something big if he can unseat the 185-pound-title-holding Anderson Silva at UFC 148.
However, a win for “Uncle Chael” means a whole lot of pain from thereon in—he won’t able to survive the ensuing onslaught from the division’s top dogs.
“Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown” will be a befitting idiom for the soi-disant “American Gangster” if he shocks the MMA world at the end of the night’s proceedings.
A former NCAA Division-l standout with a Greco-Roman pedigree, Sonnen has some exquisite wrestling credentials and good standup too boot, but that per se won’t be enough to ward off his contemporaries, some of whom boast identical strengths in the wrestling department, not to mention ever-improving striking.
In his last outing, Sonnen was unable to impose his will on Michael “The Count” Bisping, who, it must be said, gave a good account of himself, and could’ve easily been the victor that night.
If a rematch were to take place, it’s not a given that Sonnen would come out victorious.
Moving on to the rest of the snarling pack: Mark Munoz, Vitor Belfort, Alan Belcher, Tim Boetsch, Chris Weidman and Hector Lombard. Anyone of the aforementioned sextet have the sine qua non to trounce Sonnen, more so the latter duo.
Two-time All-American Weidman is the new kid on the block and is still improving. If he gets by Munoz, a shot at the title won’t be far behind.
Lombard has yet to prove himself on MMA’s grandest stage, but a win over Boetsch would silence any critics and thrust him smack-bang in the middle of the title mix, which spells bad news for Sonnen, as Lombard’s a beast.
That said, Munoz, Belfort, Belcher and Boetsch will also be a handful for the newly crowned 185-pound champion.
Hypothetical though it may seem, however, the realization is that these are the men that wait with bated breath if Chael Sonnen is able to capture the Holy Grail and assume the mantle of the division’s most wanted.
UFC 148 is scheduled for July 7, 2012, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Vinny Magalhaes who has been training Chael Sonnen in the art of submission defense, has predicted the self-styled “American Gangster” can submit perennial UFC 185-pound titlist