Jorge Rivera Says He’s Returning in Australia Against Michael Bisping

(Props: youtube.com/kimurase)
Following UFC 122, our Euro buddies at Kimura.se caught up with scheduled co-headliner Jorge Rivera to discuss his reaction to Alessio Sakara’s surprise illness-withdrawal. Rivera’s hands were already wrapped by the t…

(Props: youtube.com/kimurase)

Following UFC 122, our Euro buddies at Kimura.se caught up with scheduled co-headliner Jorge Rivera to discuss his reaction to Alessio Sakara‘s surprise illness-withdrawal. Rivera’s hands were already wrapped by the time he got the news, and he was "in shock" to learn he wouldn’t be fighting. On the bright side, he already has bigger things lined up. Said Jorge: 

"I’ve got a good fight coming up in Australia, and I’m gonna take a couple weeks off to go home and just relax, because I’ve training hard since about June. My last fight, I had to pull out about July, because I had broken my arm, but I was still training with a broken arm, I wanted to fight. I’ve been training hard now for about five, six months, so I need some time just to relax, man…And then I’m gonna train real, real, real hard. I really want this next fight, man. I not only want the fight, I wanna fuck him up. [Interviewer: Who are you fighting in Australia?] Michael Bisping…that is a scoop I’m giving you right now."

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Alessio Sakara Out of UFC 122 With Illness

Filed under: UFC, NewsAbout an hour after UFC 122 started on Saturday in Oberhausen, Germany, fans got some bad news: Alessio Sakara is out of his co-main event fight against Jorge Rivera because of an illness.

MMAjunkie.com first reported and the UFC…

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About an hour after UFC 122 started on Saturday in Oberhausen, Germany, fans got some bad news: Alessio Sakara is out of his co-main event fight against Jorge Rivera because of an illness.

MMAjunkie.com first reported and the UFC confirmed that the bout has been scrapped, and Duane Ludwig vs. Nick Osipczak has been moved up from the non-televised undercard to the main card. Sakara has what the UFC is describing as “flu like symptoms.”

UFC 122 Aftermath: No Really, Take It Easy Out There, Guys

(Yushin Okami comes dangerously close to making actual physical contact with Nate Marquardt at UFC 122. Propers: ESPN)
Fuck, that was fucking terrible. Last night we got an up-close-and-personal look at what happens when one of the UFC’s notoriou…


(Yushin Okami comes dangerously close to making actual physical contact with Nate Marquardt at UFC 122. Propers: ESPN)

Fuck, that was fucking terrible. Last night we got an up-close-and-personal look at what happens when one of the UFC’s notoriously weak overseas cards doesn’t turn out to be better in practice than on paper. And Nation? It was not pretty. When these haphazard, garage-sale-style European stinkbombs don’t catch lightning in a bottle and don’t exceed our already low expectations, all you’re left with are a bunch of lackluster fights featuring guys nobody cares about. That might be fine for Strikeforce, but frankly we expect more from the UFC.

Oh, did we mention this bad boy was on tape delay? Yeah it was, so unless you were able to spend the day studiously avoiding all electronic media you knew who was going to win anyway, in which case you were probably better served to just stay up late to watch Manny Pacquiao beat up that dude with the Dave Navarro beard. Rumor has it that was pretty shitty too. Coupled with UFCs 119 and 120 it’s hard to remember the last time Our Fearless Leader did three shows this uninspiring in such quick succession. At this point, the supercharged midgets of the WEC can’t get here fast enough. Seriously, it’ll be nice to see a few fights where somebody shows a little urgency.

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UFC 122 (Somewhat) Live Blog

Without giving away too much of tonight’s tape-delayed UFC 122 decisionfest show that went down in Germany today, we will tell you that the guaranteed slugfest between Jorge Rivera and Alessio Sakara got yanked from the main card of the event due to S…

Without giving away too much of tonight’s tape-delayed UFC 122 decisionfest show that went down in Germany today, we will tell you that the guaranteed slugfest between Jorge Rivera and Alessio Sakara got yanked from the main card of the event due to Sakara pulling out of the bout today because of illness.

We’ll be "live" tonight at 9:00 pm ET to give those of you who don’t have cable, who are too cheap to go to a bar or who think we’re really your friends and want to hang out on a Saturday night a rundown of the action via the Spike TV re-broadcast.

Check out the preliminary card results and main card play-by-play after the jump:

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UFC 122: Preview and Predictions

Filed under: UFCThe UFC is back in Germany and back on Spike TV Saturday, with a fight card that doesn’t look particularly strong on paper, but should produce some fairly entertaining scraps — and will produce the next title contender in the middlewei…

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The UFC is back in Germany and back on Spike TV Saturday, with a fight card that doesn’t look particularly strong on paper, but should produce some fairly entertaining scraps — and will produce the next title contender in the middleweight division.

What: UFC 122: Marquardt vs. Okami

When: Saturday, the main card begins at 3 PM ET and will be broadcast on tape delay on Spike TV at 9 PM ET.

Where: König Pilsener Arena, Oberhausen, Germany

Predictions on the five televised fights below.



Fighter vs. Writer: UFC 122 Predictions With Gerald Harris

Filed under: UFCWhen last we left the Fighter vs. Writer series, I came to what I choose to think of as a very respectable draw against Jason “Mayhem” Miller. You could point out that if I hadn’t felt the need to be contrary and pick Martin Kampmann ov…

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When last we left the Fighter vs. Writer series, I came to what I choose to think of as a very respectable draw against Jason “Mayhem” Miller. You could point out that if I hadn’t felt the need to be contrary and pick Martin Kampmann over Jake Shields, I would have won. To that I’d say, ‘You’re right, you jerk. I guess you just know everything, don’t you?’

But rather than dwell on hypothetical conversations that exist only in my head, we move forward to UFC 122 and a fight-picking showdown with former “Ultimate Fighter” contestant and recent Sportscenter highlight-maker Gerald Harris, who took some time out from training for his fight at UFC 123 next weekend to match wits with me.

Unlike Gerald, I haven’t slammed my way on to ESPN (yet), but I feel pretty good about my prognosticating powers this week. That is why I now turn awkwardly toward the “Hurricane” and utter the four most important words in the English language: You wanna do it?