Strikeforce fighters Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante will be competing on the Sept. 10 Strikeforce card in Cincinnati against Luke Rockhold, Daniel Cormier and Yoel Romero, respectively. MMA Fighting was granted an inside look at one of their final training sessions at X-Gym in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, before leaving as a team to the United States.
Watch below as the fighters train and spar together in our latest Training Camp Journal, shot and edited by E. Casey Leydon.
Strikeforce fighters Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante will be competing on the Sept. 10 Strikeforce card in Cincinnati against Luke Rockhold, Daniel Cormier and Yoel Romero, respectively. MMA Fighting was granted an inside look at one of their final training sessions at X-Gym in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, before leaving as a team to the United States.
Watch below as the fighters train and spar together in our latest Training Camp Journal, shot and edited by E. Casey Leydon.
Following Antonio Silva’s recent taunt aimed at Chael Sonnen on Twitter, Sonnen has taken the time to reply to Silva with a taunt of his own.Earlier this week, Sonnen tweeted that he would be hosting an MMA seminar in the near future:I will be doing a …
Following Antonio Silva’s recent taunt aimed at Chael Sonnen on Twitter, Sonnen has taken the time to reply to Silva with a taunt of his own.
Earlier this week, Sonnen tweeted that he would be hosting an MMA seminar in the near future:
I will be doing a seminar at Team Quest in Redding, Ca. on Sept 11th at 9:30am. All are welcome. Join in, or just watch.
Silva, who has been a victim of Sonnen’s words in the past, replied:
@sonnench you will show how to get out of a triangle?
In this tweet, Silva was referring to Sonnen’s less-than-stellar submission defense; Sonnen has lost eight fights by submission and four of those have come by a triangle choke. Most recently, he tapped out to a triangle choke against Anderson Silva at UFC 117, late in the fifth round.
Following this loss, Sonnen was the instigator of a war of words against Anderson Silva and his training camp, Black House MMA/Team Nogueira, a camp which Antonio Silva had recently become a member of.
Antonio Silva has been one of many fighters that have been targeted by Chael Sonnen’s anti-Brazilian taunts and jibes, and now Silva has found an opportunity to take a jab at Sonnen via Twitter.Yesterday, Sonnen notified his followers and fans that he …
Antonio Silva has been one of many fighters that have been targeted by Chael Sonnen’s anti-Brazilian taunts and jibes, and now Silva has found an opportunity to take a jab at Sonnen via Twitter.
Yesterday, Sonnen notified his followers and fans that he will be holding an MMA seminar in the near future: “I will be doing a seminar at Team Quest in Redding, Ca. on Sept 11th at 9:30am. All are welcome. Join in, or just watch.”
Silva, quick to reply, retorted with this: “@sonnench you will show how to get out of a triangle?”
Silva is referring to Sonnen’s less than stellar submission defense; Sonnen has lost eight fights by submission and four of those have come by a triangle choke. Most recently, he tapped out to a triangle choke against Anderson Silva at UFC 117, late into the fifth round.
After suffering this loss, Sonnen engaged in a war of words against Anderson Silva and his training camp, Black House MMA/Team Nogueira, a camp which Antonio Silva had recently become a member of. He also went as far as to take jabs at the nation of Brazil, which drew the ire of many Brazilian fighters and fans.
Will Chael Sonnen have a retort for Antonio Silva?
Fight fans weren’t the only ones sorry to see Alistair Overeem pulled from the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix in the midst of a contract dispute with Zuffa. Fellow tournament participant Josh Barnett said on this week’s edition of The MMA Hour that the Grand Prix had undoubtedly lost something in his eyes now that Overeem is gone from the field.
“I can’t speak for anybody else, but I know that I wanted to face him in the finals,” Barnett told Ariel Helwani on Thursday’s edition of the show.
According to Barnett, who is slated to take on Sergei Kharitonov in the Grand Prix semifinals on September 10, the fact that Overeem could be dropped from the tournament and released from his contract so suddenly got his attention for more than just competitive reasons.
“From a fighter perspective, it stinks,” he said. “You’d like to have the opportunity to fight the guy, plus he was the champ. Seeing the champion just get let go is kind of a jarring reminder, I guess, that you’re not really all that important.”
Barnett, who said that “nothing really surprises me” in MMA these days, had his own issues with the new Zuffa ownership when he requested permission to participate in a pro wrestling event in Japan, which his Strikeforce contract allows for, he said. Zuffa turned down the request, citing the proximity to the tournament semifinal match, which didn’t please his employers in Japan, Barnett said.
“They were upset. It was pretty much the biggest show of the year for them, and I was their main event.”
Still, Barnett has a full dance card back in the states, with the tournament nearing its conclusion and questions swirling about what Zuffa will decide to do with the winner. Barnett has to get by Kharitonov on Saturday, but he’ll also be keeping a close eye on the other semifinal match between alternate replacement Daniel Cormier and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.
Barnett said he was picking Cormier to win that fight despite Silva’s considerable size advantage.
“The thing about ‘Bigfoot,’ he’s a big guy and he’s agile for a big guy, but he’s not that agile and he’s not that athletic. In fact, being a big guy is probably his greatest asset.”
Silva suffers from acromegaly, which causes the enlargement of certain physical features, but which also might be his saving grace as a fighter, according to Barnett.
“You could almost say that I’m sure he’s had his issues growing up with a thing like gigantism, and all the difficulty that’s come from that. But gigantism is what actually allows him to be a decent fighter, because he doesn’t do anything particularly awesome, but he’s just massive,” said Barnett. “But all of his fights come down to him getting the takedown. Those are the ones he wins, and against Cormier I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Barnett added that, ideally, he’d like to face Cormier in the tournament finals, if only to find out whether he’s capable of taking down the former U.S. Olympic wrestling team captain.
As for whether he’ll once again put his pro wrestling expertise on display at the open workouts, Barnett wasn’t ruling anything out, saying, “Who knows? I hate to disappoint.”
And though he said he caught some heat from some fans for seizing the microphone from Gus Johnson after defeating Brett Rogers in the Grand Prix quarterfinals, don’t expect Barnett to play along with the typical post-fight Q&A anytime soon.
“The interview moments to me, they’re stupid,” he said. “They’re a waste of time. Just give the guy the mic, let him say what he’s got to say, get him out of there, and let’s move on. But let’s keep it fresh, keep it original, keep things going instead of [saying], ‘Talk us through the end of this fight.’ Nobody gives a s–t. If you want to see the end of the fight, go hit rewind on your DVR. There’s about 18,000 slo-mos after you’ve won, so why don’t we get something more personal, more individual about the guy.”
For now, Barnett just has to make sure he’s on the right side of those slow-motion replays. Against a slugger like Kharitonov, even an experienced fighter could very easily end up as a highlight-reel victim if he isn’t careful.
Fight fans weren’t the only ones sorry to see Alistair Overeem pulled from the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix in the midst of a contract dispute with Zuffa. Fellow tournament participant Josh Barnett said on this week’s edition of The MMA Hour that the Grand Prix had undoubtedly lost something in his eyes now that Overeem is gone from the field.
“I can’t speak for anybody else, but I know that I wanted to face him in the finals,” Barnett told Ariel Helwani on Thursday’s edition of the show.
According to Barnett, who is slated to take on Sergei Kharitonov in the Grand Prix semifinals on September 10, the fact that Overeem could be dropped from the tournament and released from his contract so suddenly got his attention for more than just competitive reasons.
“From a fighter perspective, it stinks,” he said. “You’d like to have the opportunity to fight the guy, plus he was the champ. Seeing the champion just get let go is kind of a jarring reminder, I guess, that you’re not really all that important.”
Barnett, who said that “nothing really surprises me” in MMA these days, had his own issues with the new Zuffa ownership when he requested permission to participate in a pro wrestling event in Japan, which his Strikeforce contract allows for, he said. Zuffa turned down the request, citing the proximity to the tournament semifinal match, which didn’t please his employers in Japan, Barnett said.
“They were upset. It was pretty much the biggest show of the year for them, and I was their main event.”
Still, Barnett has a full dance card back in the states, with the tournament nearing its conclusion and questions swirling about what Zuffa will decide to do with the winner. Barnett has to get by Kharitonov on Saturday, but he’ll also be keeping a close eye on the other semifinal match between alternate replacement Daniel Cormier and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.
Barnett said he was picking Cormier to win that fight despite Silva’s considerable size advantage.
“The thing about ‘Bigfoot,’ he’s a big guy and he’s agile for a big guy, but he’s not that agile and he’s not that athletic. In fact, being a big guy is probably his greatest asset.”
Silva suffers from acromegaly, which causes the enlargement of certain physical features, but which also might be his saving grace as a fighter, according to Barnett.
“You could almost say that I’m sure he’s had his issues growing up with a thing like gigantism, and all the difficulty that’s come from that. But gigantism is what actually allows him to be a decent fighter, because he doesn’t do anything particularly awesome, but he’s just massive,” said Barnett. “But all of his fights come down to him getting the takedown. Those are the ones he wins, and against Cormier I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Barnett added that, ideally, he’d like to face Cormier in the tournament finals, if only to find out whether he’s capable of taking down the former U.S. Olympic wrestling team captain.
As for whether he’ll once again put his pro wrestling expertise on display at the open workouts, Barnett wasn’t ruling anything out, saying, “Who knows? I hate to disappoint.”
And though he said he caught some heat from some fans for seizing the microphone from Gus Johnson after defeating Brett Rogers in the Grand Prix quarterfinals, don’t expect Barnett to play along with the typical post-fight Q&A anytime soon.
“The interview moments to me, they’re stupid,” he said. “They’re a waste of time. Just give the guy the mic, let him say what he’s got to say, get him out of there, and let’s move on. But let’s keep it fresh, keep it original, keep things going instead of [saying], ‘Talk us through the end of this fight.’ Nobody gives a s–t. If you want to see the end of the fight, go hit rewind on your DVR. There’s about 18,000 slo-mos after you’ve won, so why don’t we get something more personal, more individual about the guy.”
For now, Barnett just has to make sure he’s on the right side of those slow-motion replays. Against a slugger like Kharitonov, even an experienced fighter could very easily end up as a highlight-reel victim if he isn’t careful.
Daniel Cormier has a message for critics of wrestlers, and it doesn’t sound like he’s going to budge on it anytime soon.
Cormier, one of the most decorated college and amateur wrestlers ever to break into mixed martial arts, has found himself smack-dab in the middle of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix against Antonio Silva in the semifinals. And while he believes the fight is his most important test to date, he isn’t going to apologize for being a wrestler.
Simply put, the unbeaten heavyweight believes if his opponent can’t stop his takedowns, well … too bad.
“It’s not my job, it’s not Jon Fitch‘s job, it’s not Josh Barnett‘s job to actually teach someone takedown defense,” Cormier said Tuesday during a media call. “It’s their job to learn takedown defense. If they can’t defend the takedown, then they deserve to lay on their back for 15 minutes.”
While other fighters accused by fans and other fighters of being “lay and pray” practitioners have often tiptoed around the accusations, Cormier is more to the point.
Cormier (8-0, 5-0 Strikeforce) was inserted into the heavyweight tournament as an alternate after Zuffa suddenly cut Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem earlier this summer. After six straight stoppage wins to start his pro career, including five in the first round, Cormier has won back-to-back decisions, both scorecard sweeps.
Against Devin Cole in January, Cormier landed three takedowns. But against Jeff Monson in June, he attempted just two and instead dominated the fight in the standup game. According to FightMetric, Cormier out-struck Monson 110-19 in the fight. So as his overall MMA game progresses, Cormier knows he’ll have to fall back on other skill sets besides his world-class wrestling.
“I think it’s always good to put on exciting fights,” Cormier said. “I like to fight. This is my job. If that means I have to stand with him and fight, then I have to fight. What if I can’t take him down? But at the end of the day, it’s about winning.”
Which might just be Cormier’s way of saying that standing and banging may look fun from outside the cage, but he may think twice about being on the receiving end of “Bigfoot” Silva’s paws – especially since Silva is coming off a devastating TKO stoppage of Fedor Emelianenko in February.
“Why should I or anyone else that knows how to wrestle give up their biggest advantage?,” Cormier said. “If a jiu-jitsu guy can get you down, he’s going to use his jiu-jitsu. If a striker can keep you standing, he’s going to use his standup ability. It’s your job, which MMA is, which fighting is, to learn all areas of the game.”
Silva (16-2, 3-1 Strikeforce) has won three straight and nine of his last 10, including a TKO win over one of Cormier’s American Kickboxing Academy heavyweight teammates, Mike Kyle. And though he is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, he’s only submitted two fighters in his 16 wins. It’s his heavy hands that seem to be feared the most.
Cormier, though, said that while getting hit in the face was foreign to him from his wrestling background when he started MMA, training at AKA – especially with UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasequez – has gotten him used to it.
“Nobody likes to get hit,” Cormier said. “Wrestlers, kickboxers – nobody likes to get hit. But it doesn’t affect me. I train with the No. 1 heavyweight in the world on a daily basis, so I actually get hit a lot. And not only from Cain, but from King Mo (Lawal) and Mike Kyle and all the guys I train with. I’ve adjusted to it because they beat me up so much.”
Cormier and Silva fight Sept. 10 in one half of the semifinal bracket of Strikeforce’s continuation of the heavyweight tournament in Cincinnati. The other side of the bracket features Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov. The winners are expected to meet sometime in early 2012 for the tournament title.
HDNet will televise weigh-ins and preliminary action for next month’s grand prix in Cincinnati, Ohio.Officials announced the deal with HDNet earlier today. Strikeforce Grand Prix: Barnett vs. Kharitonov is set for Sept. 10 at U.S. Bank Arena.The main c…
HDNet will televise weigh-ins and preliminary action for next month’s grand prix in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Officials announced the deal with HDNet earlier today. Strikeforce Grand Prix: Barnett vs. Kharitonov is set for Sept. 10 at U.S. Bank Arena.
The main card will remain on Showtime, but a full slate of preliminary action will now be featured on HDNet.
Former light heavyweight champion Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante returns to action for the first time since a March defeat to Dan Henderson to face Yoel Romero. Additionally, Mike Kyle faces Marcos Rogerio de Lima and Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos takes on Jordan Mein. Rounding out the preliminary card is Amanda Nunes versus Alexis Davis.
“As we continue to showcase some of the sport’s up-and-coming talent on our prelims, we’re excited to be able to air them live on HDNet,” Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said. “We’re excited to give Strikeforce fans even more access to great fights.”
Lastly, HDNet’s Inside MMA, which is hosted by Kenny Rice and Bas Rutten, is set to broadcast live from the weigh-in location that will feature on-set interviews and analysis of the forthcoming bouts.
HDNet televised Preliminary Card:
Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante vs. Yoel Romero
Mike Kyle vs. Marcos Rogerio de Lima
Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos vs. Jordan Mein
Amanda Nunes vs. Alexis Davis
For additional information, follow Joshua Carey onTwitter
Following Antonio Silva’s recent taunt aimed at Chael Sonnen on Twitter, Sonnen has taken the time to reply to Silva with a taunt of his own.
Fight fans weren’t the only ones sorry to see 