Mike Swick finally stepped back into the Octagon after two-plus years of being on the shelf. Injuries and medical conditions prevented the AKA product from making a return to the UFC, but Swick was finally able to fight once more.Swick stepped into the…
Mike Swick finally stepped back into the Octagon after two-plus years of being on the shelf. Injuries and medical conditions prevented the AKA product from making a return to the UFC, but Swick was finally able to fight once more.
Swick stepped into the cage to face off against DaMarques Johnson, who himself is a tough opponent. Johnson had a few moments of success and looked to be close to obtaining a victory but Swick persevered through the rough times.
In the end Swick would end the fight with a huge right hand on the ground and turn the lights out for Johnson.
The performance was a sort of mixed bag for Swick, as he did achieve victory but was clearly rocked on a few occasions. The victory for Swick marked the culmination of nearly two years of hard work, but the question now is, where does Swick go from here?
I am not going to sugarcoat this one folks: this sucks!In what was one of the year’s most anticipated bouts, Rory MacDonald is now out of his matchup with UFC legend BJ Penn due to a large cut sustained in training. Per Yahoo! Sports (via MMAWeek…
I am not going to sugarcoat this one folks: this sucks!
In what was one of the year’s most anticipated bouts, Rory MacDonald is now out of his matchup with UFC legend BJ Penn due to a large cut sustained in training.
Young prospect Rory MacDonald suffered a major cut in training that has forced him out of his scheduled fight at UFC 152 against B.J. Penn.
UFC president Dana White revealed the news to MMAWeekly.com after the conclusion of UFC on Fox 4 on Saturday night.
White stated that MacDonald’s cut was so bad that he will have no contact for the next month, pushing him out of the scheduled fight with Penn in September.
The cut was on MacDonald’s forehead and required more than 40 stitches to close.
Being so close to the event’s Sept. 22 date, it is unclear as of right now whether a replacement fighter will step in to face Penn or whether the bout will be canceled altogether.
Penn has mentioned that MacDonald was the perfect fighter to bring him out of retirement, so it is unlikely he will be motivated to continue with the young Canadian now out of action.
Another strong card takes a big hit with this one, folks, and injuries prevail again.
How does this one stack up to other recent injury-riddled matchups? Let me know in a comment, and we will discuss your thoughts!
If you are a fan of MMA, heavy metal music or general absurdity, follow me on Twitter @HunterAHomistek.
A huge bombshell was dropped tonight after the post-fight press conference in a discussion with Dana White. While speaking with the MMA media, White was asked about the proposed VADA (Voluntary Anti-Doping Association) testing in the B.J. Penn-Rory Mac…
A huge bombshell was dropped tonight after the post-fight press conference in a discussion with Dana White. While speaking with the MMA media, White was asked about the proposed VADA (Voluntary Anti-Doping Association) testing in the B.J. Penn-Rory MacDonald fight.
The follow-up question was, if one of the fighters tests positive, would White pull them from the card? His response was the very definition of breaking news.
“We don’t have to worry about that anyway. It won’t happen. Rory’s out. He got cut open today, wide open. 38-48 stitches. No contact for a month. It’s off.”
White learned (as Mauricio “Shogun” Rua was walking out to the cage), that Rory MacDonald suffered a cut in training and had been forced out of the fight scheduled for September 22, 2012.
White’s delivery of his words really showed how shocked he was at receiving the news from Rory’s management.
White was also unsure if this meant that B.J. Penn would also be pulled from the event. It was a situation where there was no perfect response.
Fans are obviously disappointed that the fight was pulled from the card—losing B.J. Penn entirely would really set the UFC back.
To his credit, Rory MacDonald didn’t wish for the UFC to pull Penn from the event. He wants to see him face another opponent as one of the main draws of UFC 152.
There is no word on when fans can expect to see Rory MacDonald again in the Octagon.
Amid his national television appearances, eight wins in the UFC and record-setting submissions as a percentage of wins in the promotion, it might be hard to remember that Joe Lauzon is a regular guy who not too long ago worked a nine to five office job like lots of other Americans. Shortly after he graduated from college in 2006 with a computer science degree Lauzon got a shot in the UFC and the storyline for the Massachusetts native typically went like this: Smart college kid is fighting, for some reason.
Lauzon was supposed to be an opponent in his UFC debut, nothing more, for the returning former lightweight champion Jens Pulver. Instead, he stopped the legend in the first round and six years later “Baby Joe” is still at the top of the sport – fighting on this weekend’s UFC on FOX 4 card against former WEC lightweight champ Jamie Varner.
The twenty eight year old is as surprised as anyone.
“I never expected it to go this far,” Lauzon says, speaking of the mixed martial arts career that he began back in high school. “I thought I’d get to do it for a year or so, maybe two years. Maybe I’d make a little bit of money and then I’d have to get back to working a real job. Now I’m dreading going back to a real job,” Lauzon laughs.
Amid his national television appearances, eight wins in the UFC and record-setting submissions as a percentage of wins in the promotion, it might be hard to remember that Joe Lauzon is a regular guy who not too long ago worked a nine to five office job like lots of other Americans. Shortly after he graduated from college in 2006 with a computer science degree Lauzon got a shot in the UFC and the storyline for the Massachusetts native typically went like this: Smart college kid is fighting, for some reason.
Lauzon was supposed to be an opponent in his UFC debut, nothing more, for the returning former lightweight champion Jens Pulver. Instead, he stopped the legend in the first round and six years later “Baby Joe” is still at the top of the sport – fighting on this weekend’s UFC on FOX 4 card against former WEC lightweight champ Jamie Varner.
The twenty eight year old is as surprised as anyone.
“I never expected it to go this far,” Lauzon says, speaking of the mixed martial arts career that he began back in high school. “I thought I’d get to do it for a year or so, maybe two years. Maybe I’d make a little bit of money and then I’d have to get back to working a real job. Now I’m dreading going back to a real job,” Lauzon laughs.
At the start of his UFC career, Lauzon maintained his full time IT job to pay off student loans. It wasn’t until after he was coached by BJ Penn and his staff on The Ultimate Fighter Season 5 and received an invite to go to Hawaii to train with the champ that Joe decided to switch to fighting full time.
At the time, it was a difficult decision for Lauzon. Looking back, he says he wishes he would have made it earlier.
“If I would have known how well things would have gone, I would have made the decision earlier,” he says.
Far from being jaded, opportunities like fighting on the main card for a nationally network televised bout still get Lauzon amped. “Fighting on FOX is definitely more exciting. There’s so much exposure,” he says. “It’s obviously nice to fight on pay per view cards, but this is great because FOX is free to everyone. I think it’s cool that Dana [White] is choosing me and Jamie to give back to fans. They know we can put on an exciting fight.”
Lauzon’s last fight was exciting, but not in the way he wanted. In February Joe got knocked out with a head kick by fellow contender and former WEC champion Anthony Pettis at UFC 144 in Japan.
“That was a long flight home from Japan,” he admits. “I watched [the fight] a little bit on the plane, but not too much. Since then I’ve watched it more. I got caught with a good kick. I wasn’t as attentive as I should have been. I think I put too much emphasis on the spinning back kick and didn’t see that one coming.”
Lauzon was able to put the loss behind him by focusing on the things he can control, however. He doesn’t want to lose again, obviously, but says there is no particular pressure to not lose two in a row, even though he has yet to in his career.
“You don’t want to lose one in a row. It’s not like there’s added pressure to not lose two in a row. Its probably going to happen at some point. Winning and losing is not as important as getting in a good camp. If I had won but hadn’t gotten in a good camp, I wouldn’t be as happy that I won,” Lauzon explains.
“I lost against Pettis but I had a really good camp so I cant beat myself up over it. As long as I put in a good camp, I can feel good about my effort no matter what happens.”
Former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion BJ Penn didn’t stay retired for long, accepting a high-profile match up with rising star Rory MacDonald in June. “The Prodigy” told MMA Weekly his bout with the 23-year-old Canadian is a “dream figh…
Former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion BJ Penn didn’t stay retired for long, accepting a high-profile match up with rising star Rory MacDonald in June.
“The Prodigy” told MMA Weekly his bout with the 23-year-old Canadian is a “dream fight” for him, despite the criticism he received for accepting the challenge.
Everybody was like, “Well, you have nothing to gain, why are you doing this? C’mon, go fight someone else. This is a dream fight for Rory, he can get motivated,” and this and that, but what they’re gonna find out soon is that this is my dream fight, going up there and beating them in Toronto, in their hometown in front of everybody. I’m excited to fight in Toronto. Perfect. There couldn’t be a better place to get this done.
One of only two fighters to hold a UFC title in two separate weight classes, with “The Natural” Randy Couture being the other, Penn seems to be a sure thing for the UFC Hall of Fame one day.
However, the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert is just 1-3-1 in his past five fights, going winless in 2011. Prior to losing the decision to Diaz, Penn fought perennial contender Jon Fitch to a draw at UFC 127.
On the other hand, MacDonald is 13-1 as a professional fighter, with his sole blemish coming at the hands of UFC interim welterweight champion Carlos Condit in June 2010.
“Ares” is currently a 3 to 1 favorite over Penn, but could the Hawaiian have one more vintage performance left in the tank?
Fans will have a chance to see for themselves at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada on Sept. 22.
2012 has already been a huge year for MMA. The UFC has held some great events and traveled to Japan and Brazil. They’re not alone, though.Strikeforce has also had a good year featuring their own selection of stars such as Ronda Rousey, Gilbert Melendez…
2012 has already been a huge year for MMA. The UFC has held some great events and traveled to Japan and Brazil. They’re not alone, though.
Strikeforce has also had a good year featuring their own selection of stars such as Ronda Rousey, Gilbert Melendez and Daniel Cormier.
Bellator and many other orginizations have picked up this year as well, and through July 2012, has seemed like the year of MMA.
And we’re not even close to being done yet.
While you may be going through withdraws due to there not being a UFC or Strikeforce event this weekend, check out the 20 biggest fights to look forward to for the remainder of 2012.
I am not going to sugarcoat this one folks: this sucks!