Fedor Emelianenko is preparing for his upcoming fight with Frank Mir in the first round of Bellator’s heavyweight Grand Prix, and he’s looking bigger and badder than ever. The legendary Russian heavyweight will look to secure his first victory under the Bellator banner after dropping his promotional debut to Matt Mitrione. Check out Emelianenko and […]
Fedor Emelianenko is preparing for his upcoming fight with Frank Mir in the first round of Bellator’s heavyweight Grand Prix, and he’s looking bigger and badder than ever.
The legendary Russian heavyweight will look to secure his first victory under the Bellator banner after dropping his promotional debut to Matt Mitrione.
Check out Emelianenko and Mir as they train for a fight fans have pondered since the mid-aughts!
Emelianenko appears to be in excellent shape heading into his fight with Mir, who will still have over 30 pounds on him come fight night.
As for the other Grand Prix contestants, Chael Sonnen defeated Rampage Jackson and will fight the winner of Mir vs. Emelianenko. Meanwhile, Mitrione avenged a loss to Roy “Big Country” Nelson to advance on the other side of the bracket.
Ryan Bader will take on King Mo, with the winner facing Mitrione at a later date.
UFC president Dana White is well known for his bombastic temperament. He’s always said exactly what’s on his mind, and whether it’s about a fighters’ performance, referees, or business partners, no one is safe from his wrath. While most fighters under the UFC banner do their best to appease their mercurial boss, many others have […]
UFC president Dana White is well known for his bombastic temperament.
He’s always said exactly what’s on his mind, and whether it’s about a fighters’ performance, referees, or business partners, no one is safe from his wrath.
While most fighters under the UFC banner do their best to appease their mercurial boss, many others have found themselves on the wrong side of Dana White.
Take a look at 10 former and current UFC fighters who ended up on White’s “s*% list”:
10. Jason High
One thing White hasn’t tolerated is fighters hitting or otherwise assaulting a referee. Well, he did it when Conor McGregor stormed the Bellator cage and shoved a ref, he did it with Big Country when he kicked “Big” John, but Jason High doesn’t carry the same cache as those men.
So when High expressed his frustration due to what he perceived to be an early stoppage in a TKO loss to Rafael Dos Anjos in 2014, White didn’t hesitate to lambaste him before cutting him from the promotion entirely (his second time being let go from the UFC). Adding to High’s frustration was the fact that he was hit with some illegal strikes throughout the contest.
But after two failed stints in the UFC, albeit by way of top-tier competition, coupled with the lapse in judgment in shoving a referee was more than enough to warrant his release from the promotion.
“I heard – I didn’t even see it – that he put his hands on a referee. Done,” Dana White said of High’s indiscretion. “You touched a referee. Done. Over. That’s worse than what (Paul) Daley did to (Josh) Koscheck.”
UFC heavyweight Derrick Lewis is coming off his fourth straight victory after defeating Roy Nelson at UFC Fight Night 90. It was Lewis’ second consecutive co-main event slot, and although he wasn’t able to finish the granite-chinned ‘Big Country’ inside the limit, it was no doubt his most high-profile victory to date. The fight with
UFC heavyweight Derrick Lewis is coming off his fourth straight victory after defeating Roy Nelson at UFC Fight Night 90. It was Lewis’ second consecutive co-main event slot, and although he wasn’t able to finish the granite-chinned ‘Big Country’ inside the limit, it was no doubt his most high-profile victory to date. The fight with Nelson went down during an incredibly busy fight week, opening up a seven-day period with four UFC cards crammed in.
The fabled UFC 200 came and went, but the massive pay-per-view card was already reeling from the loss of Jon Jones by the time Lewis stepped in the octagon. Having failed an out-of-competition drug test, ‘Bones’ was removed from the July 9 main event rematch with Daniel Cormier on Wednesday July 6. Then in the week following it was Lesnar’s turn, as USADA (United States Anti Doping Agency) claimed their second victim in as many calendar weeks. Lewis was not surprised.
Jul 7, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Derrick Lewis lands a hit against Roy Nelson during UFC Fight Night at MGM Grand Garden Arena. Mandatory Credit: Joshua Dahl-USA TODAY Sports
In an interview with MMAFighting.com, ‘Black Beast’ says everyone knew Lesnar was juicing from the jump:
“It was no surprise. It was like Nate Diaz says, there was no surprise about it. Come on man. Look at the guy. Everyone knows he’s juicing. But, that don’t affect me at all. I’ll fight anyone. I’m ready.”
“For sure I’ll fight him,” he said. “When I was fighting in the lower league, I was fighting a lot of guys that was on juice. It doesn’t matter. That don’t help you fight any better, to me. I’ll still be eating fried chicken and McDonalds before my fight, and I feel fine.”
“I guess you got to have security problems if you got do all that,” he said. “But it literally don’t affect me. I don’t care. The sport itself is dangerous. Anything can happen. So if you want to juice, go ahead and juice up. It’s just going to make you more depressed afterwards.”
Brock Lesnar wasn’t Lewis’ only target with his highly humorous trash talk and somewhat outrageous honesty, as he discussed a potential title fight with Alistair Overeem ‘some time next year,’ providing the ‘Demolition Man’ can stay off the juice:
“Maybe against [Alistair] Overeem,” he said. “I think he’s going to beat Stipe [Miocic]. If Overeem can stay clean…I know he’s tempted right now to take them steroids, I know he’s tempted…but if I can stay clean I’d say we can get at it by next year.”
On a more serious note, ‘Black Beast’ reveals how many heavyweights he thins are currently abusing steroids:
“Probably 70 percent,”
“It doesn’t piss me off at all. It’s just stupid for them to do that because they know that they’re getting random drug tests. They’re willing to risk thousands of dollars for something so stupid like that, that’s not even going to help them.”
(Besides his go-for-broke style of fighting, Big Country’s penchant for telling it like it is has made him a fan favorite.)
Roy Nelson stopped by The Bum Rush Radio Show recently and as always, the outspoken UFC heavyweight contender didn’t pull a…
(Besides his go-for-broke style of fighting, Big Country’s penchant for telling it like it is has made him a fan favorite.)
Roy Nelson stopped by The Bum Rush Radio Show recently and as always, the outspoken UFC heavyweight contender didn’t pull any punches when discussing the topics we broached.
When asked about his recently publicized contract dispute with Roy Jones Junior’s Square Ring Promotions, "Big Country" says the frivolous lawsuit, which came about eight months ago is old news and that reports that he didn’t have his manager or lawyer read through the contract are false. He says that he was given the impression that SRP was no longer promoting MMA events and that his obligation to the organization (who only promoted two events and at time of writing has no other cards planned) was completed.
"It’s pretty much eight-month-old news. There’s nothing really new and exciting. It’s just a lot of legal processes. In the United States anybody can sue anybody. This has been going on for months and if this is a new story that people are writing about now, somebody hasn’t done their homework," Nelson says. "From my understanding, there was no further obligation with them. We were trying to get some fights with them and we helped them out a bit [with setting up some matches] because they were doing some smaller shows and they wanted to get into the MMA business. Now, apparently they aren’t getting into the MMA business."
