Author: Riley Kontek

Jan Blachowicz Signing: 3 More Polish Fighters the UFC Should Sign

The UFC has secured highly touted Polish light heavyweight Jan Blachowicz, a move that adds a little more depth to the light-on-talent division. This is great news, as Blachowicz was considered one of the best 205ers not with the company.
Poland, like …

The UFC has secured highly touted Polish light heavyweight Jan Blachowicz, a move that adds a little more depth to the light-on-talent division. This is great news, as Blachowicz was considered one of the best 205ers not with the company.

Poland, like Russia and Hawaii, has recently become a hotbed for MMA talent, as seen with the UFC signings of Blachowicz, Piotr Hallmann and Daniel Omielanczuk. There is a ton of talent to be had and the UFC should continue to look in that region for fighters to inhabit their divisions.

Here are three more fighters the UFC should look to secure from the country to bolster their divisions.

 

Mamed Khalidov

I get it, certain circumstances such as a good payday with KSW and strict religious restrictions have kept Mamed Khalidov from making the jump. That doesn’t mean the UFC shouldn’t pursue him.

Khalidov is probably the best middleweight in the world not currently in the UFC. His combination of crisp power punching and slick ground work make him a man to fear at 185.

He is a guy that, if the UFC were to go into Poland, could either headline (not out of the question) or make the main card of that offering. He is that good.

Don’t believe me? Check out his resume. He is 28-4-2 and has finished all of his opponents but one man. Of those 28 wins, he has defeated UFC veterans Kendall Grove, Rodney Wallace, Jesse Taylor, Matt Lindland, James Irvin and Jorge Santiago, as well as Strikeforce headhunter Melvin Manhoef.

No biggie, really.

 

Damian Grabowski/Marcin Tybura winner

The UFC has a lack of depth at the heavyweight division. It is thirsty for some talent and Poland definitely has a few guys to offer.

Both Damian Grabowski and Marcin Tybura could definitely step up and be a part of the UFC heavyweight division. That being said, they face each other in M-1 at the end of February.

Grabowski is a Bellator veteran whose only loss came in that organization to former champion Cole Konrad. The well-rounded Pole owns victories over the likes of Kenny Garner, Stav Economou, Dave Huckaba, Eddie Sanchez and Joaquim Ferreira, among others.

His current foe, Tybura, is in his late 20s and is undefeated in nine pro bouts. He has come on strong as of late, beating the likes of Konstantin Gluhov, Chaban Ka and Denis Komkin.

This is a high-profile fight that UFC officials should be keeping a watchful eye on. The winner could be a great addition to the company.

 

Lukasz Sajewski

The lightweight division is a shark tank that has a ton of talent, but it can continue to stockpile talent if Lukasz Sajewski was added to its ranks.

Known as “Wookie,” Sajewski has been a stud thus far in his career, winning all 12 of his bouts. The submission specialist is just 23 years old, showing that his best days are probably in front of him.

He already has a win over fellow Polish prospects and Bellator vet Marcin Held. One has to think he is on the UFC’s radar, especially if they were eventually to touch down in the country somewhere down the road. With Poland’s growing interest in MMA, it seems inevitable.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Rener Gracie: CM Punk’s MMA Potential Has ‘No Limit’

The WWE world was lit afire this week when CM Punk walked out of the company due to frustrations and the wear and tear the pro wrestling schedule has had on his body and mind. It is a story overshadowing everything else in the wrestling world at this p…

The WWE world was lit afire this week when CM Punk walked out of the company due to frustrations and the wear and tear the pro wrestling schedule has had on his body and mind. It is a story overshadowing everything else in the wrestling world at this point.

In talking with Ariel Helwani last week, CM Punk said there is some interest in competing in MMA once he is done wrestling. With his exit from the company happening this week, that possibility seems closer to reality, assuming his walk out of the company isn’t a work (which it appears it isn’t).

With Punk’s potential to join the MMA scene, one big name has jumped aboard the CM Punk train. That man is Rener Gracie. 

Rener, one of the legendary Brazilian jiu-jitsu-based Gracies, spoke out on how he thinks Punk could do in moving from the squared circle to the cage.

“With the little time he’s had with me spread out over so many years, he’s made remarkable progress. There’s no telling how successful he would be if he devoted himself full time to the training…He can go get some fights, knock some fools out and choke some dudes…If he dedicates himself full time, there is no limit, he has the intangibles.”

That is a big endorsement from Gracie, who also called Punk a “sponge” when it comes to picking things up in the gym.

Once again, all reports of Punk walking out of WWE have to be taken with a word of caution. In the world of pro wrestling, you never know when something is real or part of a storyline.

Should Punk make it into the world of MMA, it would be interesting to see how he does.

Punk has trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and muay thai for a while now, though he hasn’t been able to train full-time due to his hellish wrestling schedule. As seen in Punk’s wrestling arsenal, he uses a number of techniques seen in MMA such as flying knees, kicks and submission holds on the ground.

Time will tell what to make of this story. However, with Punk’s star power and the legitimate feeling about this walkout on WWE, Punk could easily be an outside attraction in MMA as Brock Lesnar and Herschel Walker were when they first took to the cage.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 169: Preliminary Card Predictions

The next excursion on pay-per-view for the UFC comes in the form of UFC 169 on Saturday. Headlined by two title fights, it promises to be one of the best cards in the early going of 2014.
The bantamweight championship will be on the line, as newly…

The next excursion on pay-per-view for the UFC comes in the form of UFC 169 on Saturday. Headlined by two title fights, it promises to be one of the best cards in the early going of 2014.

The bantamweight championship will be on the line, as newly minted undisputed champion Renan Barao defends his title in a rematch against Urijah Faber. Barao was originally supposed to fight Dominick Cruz, but an injury took the former champion out of the bout, effectively stripping him of his bantamweight gold.

Also, the featherweight championship will be contested, as longtime champ Jose Aldo meets a stiff test in the form of Ricardo Lamas at 145 pounds. Lamas is the first in a long line of contenders who are swimming the shark-infested waters of the featherweight division.

My picks for UFC on Fox 10 in Chicago were decent at best. Sometimes we go through slumps, so I hope New Jersey’s prelim card is kinder to me.

However, before that, we have the preliminary card with many new faces and a few familiar ones. Here are the predictions for those fights.

Riley’s Record in 2014: 11-8

Last Event: UFC on Fox 10 (4-3)

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TUF Nations: Luke Harris Fighter Blog, Ep. 3

Note: All quotes and material were obtained firsthand by Bleacher Report through a one-on-one between Luke Harris and Bleacher Report’s Riley Kontek.
 
This week starts out with the Australians being intentionally obnoxious. I woke up to the …

Note: All quotes and material were obtained firsthand by Bleacher Report through a one-on-one between Luke Harris and Bleacher Report’s Riley Kontek.

 

This week starts out with the Australians being intentionally obnoxious. I woke up to the sound of a didgeridoo and stomping on the floor. I am pretty sure that they were upset about us talking loudly while they slept, but there’s no way of really knowing. Either way, it’s obvious that they’re trying to instigate some conflict possibly because they’re losing the competition.

This week, Chris Indich will be fighting Chad Laprise. Like I mentioned last week, I’ve previously trained with Chris at Robert Drysdale’s gym in Las Vegas. Hes a nice guy and a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Chad, on the other hand, is a ferocious striker with great takedown defense and the ability to get back to his feet if he ends up on the ground.

As we were completing training one day, in walked Jonathan Chaimberg, best known as GSP’s former strength and conditioning coach. We had no idea if there’s any truth to this or not, but Jonathan was rumoured to have been fired by GSP after stealing a pair of his event gloves and selling them on eBay. The gloves were supposed to go to a charity. Like I said, this is only a rumor that some of the guys were talking about.

The team was not impressed to see Jonathan there. He is Canadian, and back in Montreal he trains Nordine Taleb and Chad Laprise. It seems a bit strange that he’s coaching the Australian team instead of helping our guys out. He also spends a lot of time at Tristar, so he knows the game of literally half of our team. We have no idea if he was providing the Australians with inside intel or not, but it had our team talking.

Cote was especially offended and stated that Chaimberg was only here to be on TV. It looks like he drove the team into the ground anyway, so it was probably to our advantage, having him work with the other team. I got a good laugh when my teammates called him a traitor right to his face.

While team Australia worked on strength and conditioning, our team worked on fighting. We literally put in 13 five-minute sparring rounds some days over two practices. We did seven rounds of ground-and-pound and BJJ, as well as six rounds of MMA sparring. We’re jelling great as a team and making one another stronger everyday.

The Australians were up to causing pranks around the house on top of being loud and leaving the kitchen a mess. They put tampons in our beds as well, which didn’t really phase us.

A pretty funny moment happened when they coaxed Nordine into the ice bath. Olivier Aubin-Mercier and I had some fun giving him a hard time. Nordine is a tough guy, but he hates cold water.

I didn’t know much about Chris’ background, but it sounds like he had a tough upbringing. I got to know Chad pretty well on the show. He’s genuinely a good person. He had a strong belief in God and a strong relationship with his wife.

It was funny to watch Tyler struggling to keep his diet in check. He clearly doesn’t know anything about nutrition. While most guys in the house are eating pretty clean, Tyler is snacking on chips and pizza. I don’t know how this guy is going to make weight. Maybe he won’t and get kicked off like some of the competitors in last season’s TUF. Seems like a pretty big opportunity to waste for a slice of pizza. Crazy Queenslander!

I helped Chad cut weight for this fight. He prepared well with water loading and dieting, so the weight came off easily. Chad has a great work ethic and is very strong-willed. Those qualities should serve him well in this fight and his career.

The night before the fight, we ate a team dinner. We had salad, prawns, rice, chicken and salmon. Food fit for a king. The team is really bonding; we have a great group of guys. Things are really going to get interesting when/if we need to fight one another.

Fight day, our team trained a bit. If all goes well, the coaches would pick Nordine to fight Tyler. Nordine would love to smash him for being obnoxious.

Pre-fight, Chad’s warm-up was impressive. He’s a very technical striker. No surprise as he is a Shawn Tompkins product. Shawn produced great strikers like as Sam Stout, Chris Horodecki and Mark Hominick. I got to know Shawn through Hayabusa and his work with us in developing our coaching equipment series. It was very unfortunate that Shawn passed away in 2011 at the age of 37. It was a huge loss to his team and the MMA community as a whole.

The fight went as our team and coaches predicted. He picked Chris apart with strikes. Another victory for team Canada and a hat trick. Chad was humble in victory. I’m impressed with him both as a fighter and a person. Chris was very tough in the fight and didn’t back down for a second. Our team had respect for that.

I expected Chris to come out strong and look for the takedown. I’m not sure why he didn’t shoot in the first round. Sometimes in a fight it’s tough for a guy to tell that he’s losing or down in points, and it’s his corner’s responsibility to let him know. Talking to Chris afterward, he did think the fight was pretty even on the feet and wasn’t sure of Chad’s ability on the ground, so he chose not to go there.

Second round, Chris decided to shoot. Chad stuffed Chris’ takedown and picked him apart from there. Chad closed with a spinning back kick to the body then to the face. In my mind, there was no way it was going to a third round. Chad’s keys to victory were his jab, accurate striking, using angles and lots of in-and-out movement. Indich is very tough, and I highly doubt too many fighters would have gone the distance.

Next up is Nordine Taleb vs. the pizza eater, Tyler Manawaroa. Halfway through the prelims and team Canada is looking to make it 4-0 and dish out a bit of punishment. Nordine definitely won the faceoff at the fight picks. Let’s see what happens next week.

 

**Tune in next week to hear Luke’s thoughts on the continued tension between teams, more in-depth stories from the house and his thoughts on the fight between Chad Laprise and Chris Indich. Follow Luke on Twitter @HayabusaHarris and follow his gym @Hayabusa_TC.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Chris Leben: “I Spent Most of My Money on Drugs”

Chris Leben has been a controversial figure from the minute he stepped into The Ultimate Fighter 1 house many years ago. He has continued to be a controversial figure even into his recent retirement.
In a recent post from mmaoddsbreaker.com, …

Chris Leben has been a controversial figure from the minute he stepped into The Ultimate Fighter 1 house many years ago. He has continued to be a controversial figure even into his recent retirement.

In a recent post from mmaoddsbreaker.com, Leben spoke with fellow UFC vet Frank Trigg. He opened up about his drug-riddled past, which has diminished the great amount of money “The Crippler” made with the UFC. 

It really is better now. The bottom line is, especially with all the illegal drugs, I was spending all the money I was making anyways. Six in one, half dozen in the other. I used to fight, the way I fought, I didn’t give a shit. ‘Fuck this, I could die tomorrow, let’s go out there and I’m gonna fucking kill this guy!’ That fire, I’d be lying if I said that fire was still in me these past couple fights. It hasn’t been. I hate to admit it, but shit’s going okay at home. My life’s alright. I’m a lot more of a mellow guy. Just getting older I guess. I don’t even know. I don’t know how to explain it.

This revelation should come as no surprise, as Leben has tested positive for illegal substances in post-fight drug tests.

In 2008, Leben tested positive for Stanozolol following a unanimous decision loss to Michael Bisping in the headliner of UFC 89. He was suspended for nine months, as well as fined one-third of his fight purse.

That was not the last of Leben’s troubles.

In 2011, Leben was suspended for one year in the aftermath of a stoppage loss to Mark Munoz at UFC 138. In that bout, he tested positive for oxymorphone and oxycodone.

Saying that he blew most of his money on drugs is astonishing to hear, though, as Leben was a well-paid fighter who threw down in the Octagon 22 times. In those 22 fights, Leben earned four Knockout of the Night and two Fight of the Night bonus checks that brought him home a little extra money.

Although that is an unfortunate thing to hear, at least Leben has said that now things are going better and that he’s mellowed out. From freaking out on TUF 1 to giving UFC fans their money’s worth in the cage, the eccentric fighter has had his ups and downs.

Here’s to hoping Leben continues to stay clean and away from drugs.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 169: 5 Reasons to Watch

Super Bowl weekend is rapidly approaching, and one of the biggest weekends of the year for sports will bring fans great entertainment. It won’t just be a football weekend, though, as the UFC returns to its pay-per-view roots with UFC 169 from New Jerse…

Super Bowl weekend is rapidly approaching, and one of the biggest weekends of the year for sports will bring fans great entertainment. It won’t just be a football weekend, though, as the UFC returns to its pay-per-view roots with UFC 169 from New Jersey.

Headlined by two title fights, UFC 169 will be a pivotal event for many of the fighters involved on the card. Not only will two men emerge as the clear No. 1 fighters in their respective divisions, but others will rise to the top and potentially earn a title shot or jump into the title picture.

As if you need them, here are five reasons you should watch UFC 169 this weekend.

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