Tag: blagoy ivanov

Tai Tuivasa vs. Blagoy Ivanov Reported for UFC 238

Tai Tuivasa is set to make his Octagon return at UFC 238 in Chicago, Illinois when he takes on Blagoy Ivanov at UFC 238 on June 9th. News of the bout was first reported by The Daily Telegraph Thursday evening. Tai Tuivasa is no stranger to competing in…

Tai Tuivasa is set to make his Octagon return at UFC 238 in Chicago, Illinois when he takes on Blagoy Ivanov at UFC 238 on June 9th. News of the bout was first reported by The Daily Telegraph Thursday evening. Tai Tuivasa is no stranger to competing in the Windy City, as Chicago, Illinois was […]

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Ben Rothwell vs. Blagoy Ivanov Reported For UFC Card In March

It looks like Ben Rothwell’s return is set. MMA.bg is reporting that Rothwell will go one-on-one with Blagoy Ivanov. While the exact date and location are unknown, the report notes that the bout is set for March. There are five Ultimate Fighting …

It looks like Ben Rothwell’s return is set. MMA.bg is reporting that Rothwell will go one-on-one with Blagoy Ivanov. While the exact date and location are unknown, the report notes that the bout is set for March. There are five Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) events scheduled for March. Rothwell vs Ivanov – A Look At […]

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Prominent Head Coach Takes Credit For Reducing Fighter’ Injuries 50 Percent

Javier Mendez reduces AKA fighters injuries by 50 percent.

The post Prominent Head Coach Takes Credit For Reducing Fighter’ Injuries 50 Percent appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

A prominent head coach takes credit for reducing fighters injuries 50 percent.

American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) has long been one of the very best MMA gyms on planet earth. Champions like Daniel Cormier, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Cain Velasquez and Luke Rockhold have all come through the ranks of AKA. Unlike many of their contemporaries, AKA has managed to stay relevant and adapt as the sport of MMA has evolved.

One thing, however, haunts every gym. The dreaded injury bug. In the past, many of AKA’s top fighters have been forced out of big-time fights due to injuries. Often times entire fight cards falling apart in lieu of the last minute injuries. More recently, however, AKA fighters have been hitting the scales on weight and ready to go. A trend that AKA head coach Javier Mendez believes he is responsible for.

Reducing Injuries

Speaking with BJPENN.com radio Mendez detailed how he has been able to reduce the number of fight-ending injuries before they happen.

“It is the nature of the sport,” Mendez said of training injuries at American Kickboxing Academy. “You know, there’s a lot of injuries involved in the sport. It’s not something that we have mastered yet, but I’ll tell you what, it is something that we’ve gotten better at.”

“This is still a relatively new sport and we’re still learning,” he continued. “I was still trying to figure out how do we save us from getting injured all the damn time? Why are we getting injured? It’s nuts. Well little simple things, Jason, from having the guys talk to me when they don’t want to spar. They have issues with their girlfriend or their family, you know, they didn’t get enough sleep, or they have a little injury. I want them to point it out to me. I want them to tell me what’s going on. So this way I’ll say, ‘okay, you’re just boxing today or okay, you’re not sparring today.’ Let me tell you something. Our injury rate has dropped almost over 50 percent.”

Fighters Choice

A pretty lofty claim to say the least. Regardless, Mendez continued to explain that there have been several instances were he strongly encouraged fighters to not take a fight due to injury. But you can only lead a horse to water you can’t make him drink.

“Let me give you another example,” he said. “[Blagoy Ivanov], he came to me, I took him on to start training, being his head coach for the Junior dos Santos fight, right?”

“So I said, this what you need to do,” he continued. “I need you running five, six days a week. [He said] ‘What? Why?’ [I said] ‘Yes. I need you to do it hard six days a week.’ He goes, ‘Okay coach.’ So next thing you know, two weeks into this whole thing, the poor guy rips his meniscus running on the street. He ripped his meniscus in two spots. How he’s going into the fight with Junior dos Santos with a torn meniscus in two spots. Now guess what? All you can really do is box.”

“So I had told them to cancel the fight, call the UFC, cancel the fight. So he had already scheduled surgery, he was canceling the fight, but over the weekend, he just felt like, no, I’m gonna fight. And that’s what fighters do. They fight injured. He’s not the only example. There’s tons of examples that go out there.”

“He decided to take the fight, and he went through the fight. It didn’t go his way and even if he had been 100 percent healthy feel, who knows how the fight would have gone? Because Junior dos Santos is a great fighter, you know? So I’m just saying in regards to injuries that they don’t always happen in the gym either.”

Broke Fighters

Mendez believes that most fighters opt to fight injured because of financial reasons. That is, most fighters in the UFC don’t make much more than minimum wage when its all said and done.

“I’ll give you another [example],” he said. “[Gabriel Benitez], he was scheduled to fight Andre Fili, and he was injured. He was injured, he couldn’t do nothing, and I just pleaded with him to cancel the fight. Please cancel the fight. But he needed the money. He needed the money. He could not cancel the fight. So he had no sparring, zero sparring. He was injured going into the fight, his confidence was down to the dumps, and now you fight Andre Fili for God’s sake. Come on. I mean, I knew that kid was really special.”

“So I just said, ‘Please cancel the fight.’ No. He took the fight anyways. What happens? Boom. Taken care of. So those are the things, the unknown things that the fans don’t know and they don’t understand and they don’t care to hear either. All they care about is come fight time, you either win or you don’t. And that’s what I tell my guys. I go, ‘Fans don’t give a **** whether you’re injured or not injured with your fight. They just see the winner.’”

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UFC Rankings: Chad Mendes Returns – But Is It High Enough?

Is this spot right for Chad Mendes’ return to the UFC rankings?

The post UFC Rankings: Chad Mendes Returns – But Is It High Enough? appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

The official UFC rankings have been updated following last weekend’s (Sat., July 14, 2018) UFC Fight Night 133 from the CenturyLink Arena in Boise, Idaho.

Although Junior dos Santos headlined the event with an uneventful decision win over debuting heavyweight Blagoy Ivanov (for which “JDS” rose one spot to No. 7), perhaps a more significant change on the rankings was the return of former three-time featherweight title challenger Chad Mendes, who re-debuted on the rankings at No. 7 following his first-round technical knockout over Myles Jury in his long-awaited return from a two-year USADA suspension.

“Money” may have a Top 10 spot, yet it may not be enough considering how dominant he looked in his return against a veteran over two-and-a-half years out of the cage. True, he may have lost back-to-back fights versus Conor McGregor and Frankie Edgar – and the time off probably did him some good – but the Team Alpha Male star brings it every time out and has only lost to true legends of the featherweight division. With another win, he should find himself in the top five and above soon.

Also at featherweight, rising prospect Alexander Volkanovski made his debut at No. 11 after beating previous No. 10 Darren Elkins, who fell to No. 13.

Check out the full updated rankings courtesy of UFC.com right here:

POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Daniel Cormier
2 Demetrious Johnson
3 Max Holloway
4 Conor McGregor -1
5 Georges St-Pierre
6 TJ Dillashaw
7 Tyron Woodley +1
8 Stipe Miocic -1
9 Khabib Nurmagomedov
10 Robert Whittaker
11 Cris Cyborg
12 Tony Ferguson
13 Amanda Nunes
14 Cody Garbrandt
15 Rose Namajunas

FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Demetrious Johnson
1 Henry Cejudo
2 Sergio Pettis
3 Joseph Benavidez
4 Ray Borg
5 Jussier Formiga
6 John Moraga
7 Wilson Reis
8 Alexandre Pantoja
9 Dustin Ortiz +1
9 Brandon Moreno
11 Ben Nguyen
12 Matheus Nicolau
13 Tim Elliott
14 Deiveson Figueiredo
15 Ulka Sasaki

BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: TJ Dillashaw
1 Cody Garbrandt
2 Dominick Cruz
3 Raphael Assuncao
4 Marlon Moraes
5 Jimmie Rivera
6 John Lineker
7 John Dodson
8 Aljamain Sterling
9 Pedro Munhoz +1
10 Cody Stamann -1
11 Rob Font
12 Alejandro Perez +1
13 Thomas Almeida -1
14 Brett Johns
15 Douglas Silva de Andrade *NR

FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Max Holloway
1 Brian Ortega
2 Jose Aldo
3 Frankie Edgar
4 Jeremy Stephens
5 Cub Swanson
6 Josh Emmett
7 Chad Mendes *NR
8 Mirsad Bektic -1
9 Chan Sung Jung -1
10 Renato Moicano -1
11 Alexander Volkanovski *NR
12 Ricardo Lamas -1
13 Darren Elkins -3
14 Zabit Magomedsharipov -1
15 Yair Rodriguez

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Khabib Nurmagomedov
1 Tony Ferguson
2 Conor McGregor
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Dustin Poirier
5 Kevin Lee
6 Edson Barboza
7 Justin Gaethje
8 Anthony Pettis
9 Nate Diaz -1
10 Al Iaquinta
11 James Vick
12 Michael Chiesa
13 Alexander Hernandez
14 Dan Hooker
15 Francisco Trinaldo

WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Tyron Woodley
1 Colby Covington (Interim Champion)
2 Darren Till
3 Rafael Dos Anjos
4 Stephen Thompson
5 Robbie Lawler
6 Kamaru Usman
7 Demian Maia
8 Neil Magny
9 Jorge Masvidal
10 Santiago Ponzinibbio
11 Leon Edwards
12 Donald Cerrone
13 Gunnar Nelson
14 Alex Oliveira
15 Dong Hyun Kim

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Robert Whittaker
1 Yoel Romero
2 Luke Rockhold
3 Chris Weidman
4 Kelvin Gastelum
5 Jacare Souza
6 Derek Brunson
7 David Branch
8 Paulo Costa
9 Israel Adesanya
10 Brad Tavares
11 Antonio Carlos Junior
12 Uriah Hall
13 Thiago Santos
14 Elias Theodorou
15 Krzysztof Jotko

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Alexander Gustafsson
2 Volkan Oezdemir
3 Glover Teixeira
4 Ilir Latifi
5 Jan Blachowicz
6 Jimi Manuwa
7 Ovince Saint Preux
8 Mauricio Rua
9 Corey Anderson
10 Misha Cirkunov
11 Dominick Reyes
12 Patrick Cummins
13 Tyson Pedro
14 Gadzhimurad Antigulov
15 Sam Alvey

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Stipe Miocic
2 Derrick Lewis
3 Curtis Blaydes
4 Francis Ngannou
5 Alexander Volkov
6 Alistair Overeem
7 Junior Dos Santos +1
8 Mark Hunt -1
9 Marcin Tybura
10 Tai Tuivasa
11 Aleksei Oleinik
12 Andrei Arlovski
13 Stefan Struve
14 Shamil Abdurakhimov
15 Justin Willis

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Rose Namajunas
1 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
2 Jessica Andrade
3 Claudia Gadelha
4 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
5 Tecia Torres
6 Carla Esparza
7 Michelle Waterson
8 Felice Herrig
9 Tatiana Suarez
10 Cortney Casey
11 Alexa Grasso
12 Randa Markos
13 Nina Ansaroff
14 Joanne Calderwood
15 Angela Hill

WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Nicco Montano
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Sijara Eubanks
3 Alexis Davis
4 Liz Carmouche +3
5 Roxanne Modafferi -1
6 Lauren Murphy -1
7 Katlyn Chookagian -1
8 Jessica Eye
9 Barb Honchak
10 Jessica-Rose Clark
11 Ashlee Evans-Smith
12 Andrea Lee
13 Mara Romero Borella
14 Montana De La Rosa +1
15 Paige VanZant -1

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Holly Holm
2 Ketlen Vieira
3 Julianna Pena
4 Raquel Pennington
5 Germaine de Randamie
6 Cat Zingano
7 Marion Reneau
8 Sara McMann
9 Aspen Ladd
10 Bethe Correia
11 Lina Lansberg
12 Irene Aldana
13 Lucie Pudilova
14 Sarah Moras
15 Gina Mazany

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Twitter Reacts To Knockout-Filled UFC Boise

Here’s what the MMA community had to say about tonight’s fights.

The post Twitter Reacts To Knockout-Filled UFC Boise appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Last night (Sat. July 14, 2018) the UFC Fight Night 133 took place from the CenturyLink Arena in Boise, Idaho.

In the main event of the evening, former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos welcomes former World Series Of Fighting (WSOF) heavyweight champion Blagoy Ivanov to the promotion.

The co-main event featured Sage Northcutt’s return to the welterweight division against Zak Ottow. Also on the card was Dennis Bermudez, Randy Brown, the return of former 145-pound title challenger Chad Mendes, and former women’s bantamweight title challenger Cat Zingano.

Check out the mixed martial arts (MMA) community’s reaction to UFC Boise here below:

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Junior dos Santos Defeats Blagoy Ivanov To Close UFC’s Boise Debut

Junior dos Santos Outworked Blagoy Ivanov on the feet to emerge victorious at #UFCBoise:

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Junior dos Santos is back in the win column after defeating Blagoy Ivanov.

It was sink or swim for Ivanov. In his first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bout, Ivanov was given dos Santos as a dance partner. The two headlined UFC Boise inside the CenturyLink Arena.

Early on, dos Santos looked to stalk Ivanov. A right hand was there for Ivanov. A high kick from dos Santos was blocked. Ivanov countered dos Santos with a right hand. Blood formed above the eyebrow of dos Santos. A body kick was there for “Cigano.” The round later came to a close.

Ivanov blocked a spinning wheel kick in the second round. A solid jab caught the eye of Ivanov. A combination was there for “Cigano.” Another jab found the mark for dos Santos. Swelling formed on the right side of Ivanov’s face. A right hand connected for dos Santos. It was a clear round for dos Santos.

Ivanov landed a left hand early in the third round.He looked to close the distance after rounds one and two didn’t go his way. A punch to the eye once again hurt Ivanov. He kept blinking. “Cigano” remained patient. A left hand landed clean for Ivanov. It didn’t rock dos Santos, but he got hit with a right hand. “Cigano” went for another spinning kick. The round ended shortly after.

A right hand found the target for dos Santos. Time was called to cut some tape from dos Santos’ glove. Ivanov moved forward, but swung at air. A right hand counter landed for dos Santos. Ivanov was slowing down considerably and just didn’t have much energy.

At the start of the final frame, dos Santos landed a right hand. Ivanov moved forward throwing strikes. A body kick found the mark for dos Santos. A short right hand landed for Ivanov. Time was called for an accidental eye poke caused by dos Santos, who was warned prior for another poke. A point wasn’t taken from dos Santos. A big right hand landed for dos Santos, but Ivanov move forward anyway. The final horn sounded and the decision was clear.

Final Result: Junior dos Santos def. Blagoy Ivanov via unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45)

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