UFC 130 is just around the corner and is set to take place without a big-name battle.But even without the added hype of Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard for the lightweight title, UFC 130 still has some battles left to be seen.Quinton “Rampage” Jackson i…
UFC 130 is just around the corner and is set to take place without a big-name battle.
But even without the added hype of Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard for the lightweight title, UFC 130 still has some battles left to be seen.
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is getting close to having a shot at the light heavyweight title and could be set back with a loss to underdog, Matt Hamill.
Also, a battle between Frank Mir and Roy Nelson is set to take place that could help catapult either fighter further into the world heavyweight rankings.
UFC 130 also features top 10 middleweight, Jorge Santiago, who will be making his second stint in the UFC. Rick Story will be facing one of the top ranked welterweights in the world, Thiago Alves.
Chad Mendes won’t be waiting for Jose Aldo. Instead, he will take a fight and remain on the UFC 133 card in Philadelphia.Mendes will now face Rani Yahya at UFC 133, according to MMA Junkie.The UFC 133 card took another hit when it was announced that Al…
Chad Mendes won’t be waiting for Jose Aldo. Instead, he will take a fight and remain on the UFC 133 card in Philadelphia.
The UFC 133 card took another hit when it was announced that Aldo would not be able to defend his title against the top contender, Mendes. That is the second championship bout that could have happened in the UFC’s second trip to Philadelphia.
The other championship bout was rumored to be Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans for the light heavyweight title before Jones put off the fight for surgery. Jones opted not to go through with the surgery.
Mendes made his UFC debut earlier this year in February with a unanimous decision victory over Michihiro Omigawa at UFC 126. Mendes is currently undefeated with a 10-0 mark.
Yahya last fought January when he won by unanimous decision over former WEC featherweight champion, Mike Brown.
It is yet to be seen if Mendes vs. Yahya will be a main-card fight.
UFC 133 also contains a light heavyweight showdown between Evans and Phil Davis. It also has a middleweight bout between Yoshihiro “Sexyama” Akiyama and Vitor Belfort.
Cole Escovedo may best be known as the first WEC featherweight champion. But at Dream 13, Escovedo unleashed a devastating blow to the head of Yoshiro Maeda in a bantamweight bout to be remembered.The bout goes normally and Escovedo utilizes the head k…
Cole Escovedo may best be known as the first WEC featherweight champion. But at Dream 13, Escovedo unleashed a devastating blow to the head of Yoshiro Maeda in a bantamweight bout to be remembered.
The bout goes normally and Escovedo utilizes the head kicks early on. But, with less then eight minutes left (For those of you who don’t know, Dream utilizes a 10-minute first-round unlike the UFC), Escovedo unleashes one head kick that Maeda couldn’t handle that night.
If you blinked, you definitely missed the connection of Escovedo’s foot and Maeda’s head.
Maeda quickly dropped to the mat, and it was lights out from there. Maeda afterwards looked like he could barely stand, and leaves one to wonder if he actually knew where he was and what his name was.
Maeda would go on and lose his next bout against Kenji Osawa via split decision. But since that, he has won his last two bouts against Takafumi Otsuka and Masanori Kanehara. Maeda is now scheduled to fight in a week against Hideo Tokoro at Dream 17.
Escovedo went on from this bout and lost his next two fights to up-and-coming UFC bantamweight fighter, Michael McDonald and Michihiro Omigawa. Escovedo, though, is currently coming off of a win against Steven Siler and faces Renan Barao at UFC 130 this Saturday for his first bout, inside the Octagon.
This bout at Dream 13 produced one great knockout and a huge victory for the former WEC champ.
Speculation as to who the next coaches for The Ultimate Fighter 14 led many to believe a possible matchup between Chael Sonnen and Michael Bisping was only a few steps away.Unfortunately though, Sonnen has had his license suspended indefinitely an…
Speculation as to who the next coaches for The Ultimate Fighter 14 led many to believe a possible matchup between Chael Sonnen and Michael Bisping was only a few steps away.
Unfortunately though, Sonnen has had his license suspended indefinitely and now his future in MMA seems very much in jeopardy.
“I’m disappointed. I’ve been sitting on the sidelines for a while now and I think pretty much everybody can work out that I was hoping to fight Chael Sonnen, and we were waiting to hear if he was going to clear up his personal problems,” Bisping said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “Obviously today we found out that he’s been indefinitely suspended.
“It’s a shame for the guy. I really do feel for him. We’re all human beings; we all make mistakes. He’s being punished, and okay, he’s made some very, very bad decisions lately, but no one’s perfect—I’m certainly not perfect—and I feel for the guy.”
Yesterday, Sonnen said that if his appeal was successful that he and Bisping would be coaches on TUF 14.
“I knew there was a little red tape to go through and today we have the combination of all that. It’s a shame for Chael Sonnen, it’s a shame for the fans, and all in all, a bad turn of events,” said Bisping. “And for me as well, it was a big opportunity. You know, Chael Sonnen, a fight with him would have been a big deal for me and a No. 1 contender fight, so obviously, I’m disappointed as well, but yeah, I’m not sure what is going to happen now.”
Even without Sonnen as the coach opposite to him on TUF 14, Bisping still remains very interested in coaching the next season thats suppose to start filming sometime in the near future.
“Yeah, absolutely. The Ultimate Fighter did fantastic things for me as a fighter and my career. If it weren’t for The Ultimate Fighter, it’s possible we might not be having this conversation now. So, I’m very grateful for my time on The Ultimate Fighter as a contestant and as a coach,” Bisping said.
“So if the UFC were graceful enough to give me another shot on the show, then who am I to turn it down? The UFC have been the best employees a man can ever wish for. If that’s what they want me to do, then I’m their man.”
Click here to read and see the entire rankings.Rankings slideshow written by Sean Smith These bantamweight rankings were voted on by a panel of ten writers from around the Bleacher Report MMA community. These ten writers answered the call and gave…
These bantamweight rankings were voted on by a panel of ten writers from around the Bleacher Report MMA community. These ten writers answered the call and gave us a great first set of rankings for the Bleacher Report MMA community.
If you poll different writers you would end up with completely different rankings, each unique in their own way.
No one writer had the same rankings and the top ten—especially the fighters ranked at number ten and number nine—were different and showed the vast difference between the writers rankings.
Now, these rankings were published before UFC 130 and feature some of the fighters from the only UFC event in May.
Fighters like Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Matt Hamill, Frank Mir and Roy Nelson have graced the different divisional rankings from around the Bleacher Report writers who were asked to fill out who they thought was in their divisional top ten.
Click here to read and see the entire rankings. Rankings slideshow written by Nick Caron These heavyweight rankings were voted on by a panel of ten writers from around the Bleacher Report MMA community. These ten writers answered the call and ga…
These heavyweight rankings were voted on by a panel of ten writers from around the Bleacher Report MMA community. These ten writers answered the call and gave us a great first set of rankings for the Bleacher Report MMA community.
If you poll different writers you would end up with completely different rankings, each unique in their own way.
No one writer had the same rankings and the top ten—especially the fighters ranked at number ten and number nine—were different and showed the vast difference between the writers rankings.
Now, these rankings were published before UFC 130 and feature some of the fighters from the only UFC event in May.
Fighters like Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Matt Hamill, Frank Mir and Roy Nelson have graced the different divisional rankings from around the Bleacher Report writers who were asked to fill out who they thought was in their divisional top ten.
