Tag: Breaking News

Anderson Silva: “Rematch with Weidman Won’t Last Long If It Stays Standing”

Anderson Silva is ready to remind the world why he is widely considered the greatest fighter in MMA history.
The former UFC middleweight champ is heralded as one of combat sports’ most beloved icons, but in July, the invisible aura attached to hi…

Anderson Silva is ready to remind the world why he is widely considered the greatest fighter in MMA history.

The former UFC middleweight champ is heralded as one of combat sports’ most beloved icons, but in July, the invisible aura attached to his name came crashing down courtesy of a left hook from a 9-0 contender touted as nothing more than a stepping stone by the general public.

Chris Weidman proved to be much more than any other run-of-the-mill opponent Silva has faced in the past. The New York native shocked the world by overcoming Silva’s mind games and capitalizing on early mistakes to earn perhaps the most memorable knockout in UFC history.

In speaking with Sportv (h/t MMAFighting.com), Silva claims that basic mistakes, not taunting, cost him the fight:

My mistakes in that fight, and that’s the first time I’m saying this, were basic mistakes. I did everything I had to do except hit him. I didn’t counterattack. When I stopped with my feet parallel, I should have hit him and walked one step behind. I didn’t do that. I saw my mistakes and I’m working on that to train for this next fight.

The highly anticipated rematch between Weidman and Silva is slated to go down at UFC 168 on December 28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Coincidently enough, the event is being held in the same venue Silva lost the title a few months ago.

It may be under the same roof, but Silva is expecting a much different outcome this time around. He has already issued a stern warning to the reigning champ, if he opts to stand and trade again: “It’s going to be a tough fight, and it won’t last too long if it stays standing.”

Weidman has a definitive grappling advantage over Silva, and he was able to stay competitive during the standup exchanges in the first fight. However, it would be shocking to see a similar approach yield the same results the second time around.

Weidman might do well to listen to Silva and adopt the grappling-first approach that garnered him great success early in the first bout.

Lightning rarely strikes twice, especially against a legendary striker like Anderson Silva.

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UFC on Fox 9: Former Bellator Champ Zach Makovsky Faces Scott Jorgensen

Former Bellator bantamweight champion Zach “Fun Size” Makovsky has signed a multi-fight contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship and will face Scott Jorgensen at next week’s UFC on Fox 9 event in Sacramento.
Sources close to the promotion confi…

Former Bellator bantamweight champion Zach “Fun Size” Makovsky has signed a multi-fight contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship and will face Scott Jorgensen at next week’s UFC on Fox 9 event in Sacramento.

Sources close to the promotion confirmed the fight with Bleacher Report on Wednesday morning. UFC on Fox 9, which takes place December 14th, is headlined by a flyweight title rematch between champion Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez.

Makovsky (16-4, 0-0 UFC) was released by Bellator after suffering two consecutive losses in 2012, with one of them in a title fight against Eduardo Dantas at Bellator 65. He returned to his winning ways as a flyweight in his next fight, beating Claudio Ledesma before signing with UFC feeder organization RFA earlier this year.

Makovsky won the RFA flyweight championship in his debut, but the organization was never going to prevent him from moving on to the UFC. He joins the UFC as an instant contender at flyweight and interesting addition to the UFC’s newest male weight class. 

With an injury suffered by original Jorgensen opponent John Dodson, an opportunity opened up for a late-notice replacement, and Makovsky jumped at the chance. 

Jorgensen lost three of his last four fights as a bantamweight, with the most recent coming at the hands of Urijah Faber in April. Following the loss, Jorgensen made the decision to drop to flyweight in an attempt to resuscitate his career. 

Jorgensen was originally scheduled to face Ian McCall at the event, but an injury forced McCall out of the bout. He was replaced by Dodson, but then Dodson suffered an injury. 

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Ben Askren Trades Shots with ONE FC Welterweight Phil Baroni on Twitter

Former Bellator welterweight champion Ben Askren may not officially be a part of the ONE FC roster yet, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t already have a fight in mind for his promotional debut. 
Popular Twitter personality Front Row Brian got the b…

Former Bellator welterweight champion Ben Askren may not officially be a part of the ONE FC roster yet, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t already have a fight in mind for his promotional debut. 

Popular Twitter personality Front Row Brian got the ball rolling by asking his followers to name a welterweight currently under contract with ONE FC. 

Eventually, Phil Baroni ended up chiming in on the matter. 

With “Funky” all but guaranteed to put the ink on the dotted line before the end of the week, the matchmaking pretty much does itself. 

“The New York Badass” certainly had an interesting take on the potential matchup. 

Needless to say, Askren had a much different take on how the showdown in the cage would go down.

Baroni tried to laugh the insult off, but Askren wasn’t having it. 

Baroni is just 15-17 in 32 professional fights, including a recent 1-3 record under the ONE FC banner. Meanwhile, Askren, a former Olympic-level wrestler, remains undefeated at 12-0.

The high point of Baroni’s career was arguably when he fought Frank Shamrock for the Strikeforce middleweight title in June 2007, getting choked out by a rear naked choke in the second round. 

On the other hand, Askren notched four successful title defenses under the Bellator banner before his contract expired, and the company opted not to re-sign the high-level grappler. 

Therefore, it’s hard to imagine Baroni vs. Askren being a competitive fight. However, the bout remains a distinct possibility since Baroni is probably the most well-known welterweight currently under contract with ONE FC.

Baroni vs. Askren: would this be a fight worth watching for the fans?

 

John Heinis is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA Editor for eDraft.com.

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John Dodson Injured, out of UFC on Fox 9 Bout with Scott Jorgensen

John Dodson became the latest fighter to drop off Dec. 14’s UFC on Fox 9 card Tuesday evening. 
According to MMAjunkie, Dodson withdrew from his scheduled fight against Scott Jorgensen after suffering an injury in training, leaving the UFC to do s…

John Dodson became the latest fighter to drop off Dec. 14’s UFC on Fox 9 card Tuesday evening. 

According to MMAjunkie, Dodson withdrew from his scheduled fight against Scott Jorgensen after suffering an injury in training, leaving the UFC to do some last-minute shuffling. 

For those keeping track at home, Dodson’s injury represents the fifth major hit to this card, as Anthony Pettis, John Moraga, Kelvin Gastelum and Jamie Varner also fell off the night’s lineup in recent months. 

Pettis’ injury was particularly devastating, as he was expected to defend his lightweight title for the first time against Josh Thomson. Because of his injury, however, the UFC replaced the bout with the current main event between flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez. 

Jorgensen was originally expected to face Ian McCall at this event, but “Uncle Creepy” pulled out of the fight in late October, also citing an injury. 

No replacement opponents have been named for Jorgensen’s flyweight debut, but in a thin division, the pickings are slim. 

Since McCall and Dodson were originally named as opponents for Jorgensen’s first trek to the 125-pound division, it is clear that the UFC is comfortable with giving him a top-level opponent right away. 

Because of this, top 10 opponents like John Lineker, Ali Bagautinov or Chris Cariaso make sense. All of these men are coming off big wins in recent months and would provide an adequate test for Jorgensen to gauge how well he can perform in a new division. 

Lineker, however, struggles to make weight with a full training camp behind him, and a short-notice bout will almost assuredly not work out in his favor on the scale. 

Bagautinov and Cariaso, on the other hand, have always made weight, and they’ve each competed within the past two months, so they should be prepared for a quick turnaround. 

These possibilities aside, Jorgensen is fully expected to participate at UFC on Fox 9, and his flyweight debut will be hotly anticipated regardless of who stands across from him inside of the Octagon. 

Stay tuned. A replacement opponent will be released shortly. 

 

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Dana White Denies Apologizing to Georges St-Pierre

Many considered it a knee-jerk reaction and a misstep for UFC president Dana White to harshly criticize Georges St-Pierre following his controversial win over Johny Hendricks at UFC 167.
But more than two weeks have passed since he made his bold post-f…

Many considered it a knee-jerk reaction and a misstep for UFC president Dana White to harshly criticize Georges St-Pierre following his controversial win over Johny Hendricks at UFC 167.

But more than two weeks have passed since he made his bold post-fight comments regarding the longtime welterweight champ, and White still firmly stands by his sentiments.

White offered insight on rumors started by St-Pierre’s trusted mentor Kristof Midoux during an interview with MMAJunkie’s John Morgan on Saturday. He quickly dispelled the claims Midoux made in Le Journal De Quebec that he re-watched the St-Pierre-Hendricks bout or that he apologized to “GSP.”

“I had heard that, but no, that’s not true. I have not watched the fight yet. I still haven’t watched the fight. This (Midoux) guy’s like one of the new Kardashian sisters. This guy pops up out of nowhere, and now he’s everywhere.”

Showing a continued lack of remorse for the man he’s repeatedly called the company’s most significant pay-per-view draw, White then sounded off on St-Pierre’s seemingly limited future options by saying: 

“Realistically, I’m not forcing Georges to do anything, but Georges has to defend his title. He was off for over a year already with ACL surgery. So if people have problems with it, I could (not) give a s*** if they like it or don’t. I don’t care what peoples’ opinions of that are.”

Midoux, a veteran of one UFC fight who holds a 6-10 pro record, apparently fabricated the following tale about White backtracking on his words on Nov. 22 to Le Journal De Quebec:

“Few people know it, but the next morning (White) called Georges and told him, ‘I’m sorry, I watched the fight again and you have indeed won. I spoke under the influence of emotion.'”

A battered St-Pierre initially set White off by saying, “I have to step away. Right now I have to go away for a little bit,” in an interview with Joe Rogan immediately following UFC 167.

Shortly thereafter, White expressed his displeasure for the situation and St-Pierre’s split-decision win during the UFC 167 post-fight press conference. 

“Does anybody here think that Johny Hendricks didn’t win the fight? I’m blown away that Georges St-Pierre won that fight. And listen, I’m a promoter. He’s the biggest pay-per-view star on the f***ing planet for me, and I still don’t think he won that fight.”

White always has strong opinions, and he rarely regrets acting on impulse. In this case, the UFC’s czar seems determined to maintain control over his most prolific money maker.

But if St-Pierre’s already on the verge of stepping away, then a cold ultimatum from White certainly won’t help persuade him to stay.

White must allow GSP to soul search and genuinely decide whether he wants to continue adding to his 12-fight winning streak or forfeit his belt.

Regardless of his decision, St-Pierre still has plenty to prove in the welterweight division. After all, he’s only beaten four of the UFC’s Top 10 welterweights, with one of those wins coming against Hendricks.

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Luke Barnatt: Conor McGregor Buys Fans and Followers on Twitter

Luke Barnatt is “100 percent” sure that Conor McGregor’s massive Twitter following isn’t real.
The Ultimate Fighter Season 17 alumni appeared on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour, where he opened up about McGregor’s a…

Luke Barnatt is “100 percent” sure that Conor McGregor’s massive Twitter following isn’t real.

The Ultimate Fighter Season 17 alumni appeared on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour, where he opened up about McGregor’s accelerated popularity and the façade created by the Paradigm Sports Management’s business module.

Paradigm is the management company that I believe that Conor McGregor is under. They have this interesting concept that they believe that your following is depicted by how many people you have on Twitter, so your whole MMA following, if you’ve got followers on Twitter, then obviously you’re a big deal, and they find that easier to go out and get sponsorships and make you look important.

So they employ this thing called Tweetbot. You pay a certain amount of money, and you get these fake followers. So they’re built and they’re made by a computer, and they follow certain people. If you go through the followers, the Paradigm guys, not all of them but some of them, you’ll find these rival accounts that make up a lot of the percentage for people who is following. Yeah it makes them look like they’re a big deal, it makes them look like they’ve got lots of fans, and it makes them look important.

Barnatt has been promised a new car by a friend of his agent’s, if he is able to surpass McGregor in Twitter followers. Of course, that’ll be a difficult task considering the Irishman has nearly seven times as many followers.

Yes folks, Twitter is serious business these days, apparently.

There has never been a fighter in UFC history to achieve the same level of notoriety in such a short time as McGregor since former heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar.

McGregor has only had two fights in the Octagon against relatively lukewarm opposition, and he is already one of the most recognizable faces in the featherweight division. When he isn’t riding around in Ferraris and taking selfies with UFC President Dana White, he’s talking trash on Twitter and strolling around the country in expensive suits living the good life.

At UFC Fight Night 26, the UFC even opted to give McGregor the same blackout entrance that is typically reserved for the co-main and main event bouts.

McGregor’s instantaneous rise to superstardom hasn’t gone over well with many UFC veterans.

When speaking with Fighter’s Only, Cole Miller called McGregor “disgusting” for attempting to talk his way to the top of the division. During an appearance on The MMA Hour, Diego Sanchez said McGregor had a “big mouth” and he needed to “walk the walk before he can talk the talk.” Cub Swanson told MMA Roasted (h/t John Joe O’Regan of Fighters Only) that McGregor needs to be careful running his mouth and “fight somebody in the top-10 first.”

For Barnatt, it isn’t about jealousy or McGregor trash talking his way to the top of the ranks. Quite the contrary, he actually likes McGregor and considers him to be a good individual. There are times when he feels like the featherweight crosses the line, and a prime example of that is his ongoing beef with Sanchez.

I’m not jealous of Conor, he’s a cool guy, Barnatt said on The MMA Hour. I’ve met him a few times. But I just think if you want to be fake and you pretend like you’re a big deal by getting all of these followers then calling out people like Diego Sanchez is weak, and things like that start to irritate me. If you’re going to call somebody out, for one you call somebody out in your own weight division, and number two, you call somebody out who is coming off of a win. You don’t call somebody out who’s a loser. What’s the point in that? It don’t make much sense in my eyes.

Money can’t buy talent, and McGregor has the potential to do some special things in the UFC. Still, legacies are written by the long-suffering journey towards completing a goal, not just the completion of the goal itself.

For the time being, the only thing McGregor is “notorious” for is potential greatness and self-promotion.  

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