Tag: Breaking News

Yushin Okami Wants to ‘Smash’ Jacare Souza and Prove He’s the No. 1 Middleweight

It’s hard to imagine the No. 3 fighter in the world in any weight class flying under the radar, but that’s exactly where Yushin Okami finds himself as he heads into his next bout against Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza this Wednesday at UFC Fight Night 28.
Okam…

It’s hard to imagine the No. 3 fighter in the world in any weight class flying under the radar, but that’s exactly where Yushin Okami finds himself as he heads into his next bout against Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza this Wednesday at UFC Fight Night 28.

Okami has never been accused of being the flashiest fighter on the planet, and with a language barrier that once almost got him shot by Chael Sonnen’s mother, he’s not usually the one on television giving searing interviews and calling out opponents.

What Okami does do and has done almost better than any other middleweight over the last seven years in the UFC is win fights.

Okami‘s resume is littered with top-10 fighters, former champions and ranked contenders, so it’s somewhat mysterious, despite all these accolades and accomplishments, that he enters his fight against Souza as one of the biggest underdogs on the card.

Okami is currently listed as high as a +230-underdog to Souza, who will fight in the UFC for only the second time on Wednesday night.

“I have no idea why people are thinking that way,” Okami said when hearing about the odds. “I really do not care what people are talking about.

“I know that Jacare is a great athlete and a great fighter so he deserves that consideration. To me it’s a great honor to fight against such a great fighter.”

Whether the betting lines are for or against Okami, his job never changes. He’s faced other competitors that were highly regarded prospects touted as being ‘the next big thing,’ and more often times than not, after spending 15 minutes in the cage with him they were going back to the drawing board trying to figure out where it all went wrong.

Okami‘s powerful wrestling has suffocated more than a few fighters in the Octagon, but this time he’s facing one of the best Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners to ever step foot in the UFC. Okami is well aware of what Jacare does well, but that’s not going to change what he does to every opponent.

It generally ends with them on their back feeling a little humiliated after spending the entire fight trying to get away from Okami‘s iron-clad grip.

“Jacare is not just a jiu-jitsu fighter, he’s a specialist at jiu-jitsu,” Okami said. “I am really careful about how I fight him in the ground fight, but I’m not afraid of fighting him on the ground.”

As accomplished as he’s been in his UFC career, a victory in Brazil would put Okami on a four-fight win streak—something he’s never done before. While Okami lost in his only bid to win the UFC middleweight title back in 2011 when he lost to Anderson Silva at UFC 134, Okami is looking at the division with fresh eyes these days.

With Silva currently sitting as a challenger now instead of champion while Chris Weidman polishes the gold around his waist, Okami is ready to jump back into title contention starting on Wednesday night.

“Of course my goal is to become the top (fighter) in this division,” Okami said. “So, I’m not satisfied with my ranking right now. If I beat Jacare, it’s going to be a big step up for me to prove that I’m the No. 1 fighter in this division.

“By beating Jacare I’m going to be given that kind of right, but it’s not only important to win, but how I win the fight. Always, I’m going to fight whoever the UFC wants me to fight.”

Call it style points or call it the best way to be remembered, but just beating an opponent doesn’t always get a fighter’s name called when it comes time for fight night bonuses or getting the Internet buzzing after a performance. Okami is aware of that factor, as well, so he doesn’t just want to beat Jacare—he wants to annihilate him.

“I’m going to utilize all of my MMA techniques, and I’m going to wear him down and I’m going to smash him.”

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

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Former UFC Champion Sean Sherk Announces His Retirement from MMA

Sean Sherk was an old-school fighter that kept the same mentality through nearly 14 years of competing in the cage and the ring, but a mounting list of injuries hampered his ability to compete. As a result, he announced his retirement from mixed martia…

Sean Sherk was an old-school fighter that kept the same mentality through nearly 14 years of competing in the cage and the ring, but a mounting list of injuries hampered his ability to compete. As a result, he announced his retirement from mixed martial arts Monday.

The announcement about Sherk’s retirement was made during the MMA Hour (via host Ariel Helwani’s Twitter feed). Additional sources confirmed to Bleacher Report that Sherk came to the decision to retire just recently and made it official this week.

It’s been nearly three years since the 40-year-old Sherk last set foot in the cage, where he picked up a close split-decision victory over Evan Dunham at UFC 119 in Indianapolis.

Following that fight, Sherk’s body continued to wilt after being hit with a slew of injuries that kept his MMA schedule blank for the next few years while he rehabbed and tried to make a return to the sport.

In an interview with MMAWeekly.com in October 2012, Sherk said he wasn’t ready to call it a career just yet, but he didn’t want to return unless his body was really ready for the competition. According to Sherk, it all came down to having surgery, and it wasn’t something he was willing to go through again.

I’ve got some injuries that need surgery, and I really don’t want to have surgery. I’ve had surgery several times in the past, and the whole recovery process, I don’t like it. I don’t like the down time, the three to four months of getting back to 100-percent; I don’t like that. I’m trying to get myself healthy without having any kind of surgery. I mean I feel pretty good. I’d say I’m probably 85-percent, which is pretty good, considering.

Sherk was a force in the UFC in several different eras, moving from welterweight to lightweight, competing for titles in both weight classes and having a career that spanned UFC events from 2001 to 2010 at the time of his last bout.

While he wasn’t the first ever UFC lightweight champion, Sherk ushered in a new era for the 155-pound division after the weight class was dropped by the promotion for several years. Sherk defeated Kenny Florian in 2006 to become the new UFC lightweight champion.

Eventually, Sherk lost the belt after testing positive for banned substances (for which he vehemently denied using) and then fell to defeat in his bid to reclaim the title when he faced B.J. Penn at UFC 84 in 2008.

Sherk went 2-1 in his final three fights in the UFC before the long layoff due to injury.

Even last year when he was contemplating a comeback, Sherk said the idea of retirement was tough to handle. He knew eventually it was something he’d have to face, but at the time, he wasn’t ready to concede to it.

I don’t think I’ll ever have that mentality (about retirement). Eventually, I’m going to have to come to terms. Eventually, I’m going to have to walk away from the sport, but hopefully that’s not for a little while yet. When that time comes, I guess that’s a decision I’ll have to come to terms with.

It seems as of Monday, Sherk has come to that decision and will retire from MMA with a 36-4-1 record as a former UFC lightweight champion and UFC welterweight title contender.

 

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report.

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Jose Aldo: I’m ‘Not Afraid’ of Anthony Pettis, I’d Fight Cain Velasquez

UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo wasted little time in refuting the notion that he was afraid to fight newly crowned 155-pound titleholder Anthony Pettis. 
In an interview on the Brazilian TV show Planeta Nocaute on Sunday, “Scarface” said he …

UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo wasted little time in refuting the notion that he was afraid to fight newly crowned 155-pound titleholder Anthony Pettis. 

In an interview on the Brazilian TV show Planeta Nocaute on Sunday, “Scarface” said he welcomes all challengers at 145 pounds, and Pettis is no exception (via MMA Fighting). 

“I can fight Cain Velasquez if they want,” Aldo said on the program. “It’s not up to me, I’m not the matchmaker. I want to fight, I’m here to fight. I train everyday to destroy whoever they put in front of me. I’m not scared of anyone. They have two arms and two legs, and I will do my best and win.”

UFC President Dana White was critical of comments made by Andre Pederneiras, Aldo’s manager, indicating that he was only interested in an Aldo-Pettis matchup at featherweight. 

Here’s what White said on the matter at the UFC 164 post-fight scrum (via MMA Junkie): 


” … I mean, for his manager to come out, this is what drives me crazy about managers. I love him. He’s a good guy. I’ve known Andre for years. But when you come out and make a statement like that, you make it look like your guy is afraid of him. You make it look like Aldo is afraid. And that might not be Aldo’s same opinion. It might be his manager saying, ‘This is what I want to happen here.’ But it makes it look like he’s afraid of Anthony Pettis, which already gives Anthony Pettis an advantage.”

Aldo also said on the show that White “knows he promised us things” in regards to a fight with Pettis, though he didn’t get into specifics. 

Pettis and Aldo were originally scheduled to clash at UFC 163 earlier this month, but Pettis withdrew from the featherweight title fight due to a knee injury. 

The Nova Uniao still headlined the event, which took place in his homeland of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, against Chan-Sung Jung and he won the bout via fourth round TKO. 

Aldo has now won a whopping 16 straight bouts and boasts a 23-1 record overall, with his only loss coincidentally occurring in his one and only appearance at lightweight in November 2005.

The devastating striker, who is also a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, has teased moving up to lightweight on several occasions, but has yet to move forward with the idea thus far. 

 

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

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Ryan Bader: Glover Teixeira Hype Is Justified but He Can Be Put Away

If you look at the odds heading into UFC Fight Night 28, it would appear on paper that former Ultimate Fighter winner Ryan Bader has no business being in the same cage as Glover Teixeira.
Currently, the experts in Las Vegas have Teixeira as a whopping …

If you look at the odds heading into UFC Fight Night 28, it would appear on paper that former Ultimate Fighter winner Ryan Bader has no business being in the same cage as Glover Teixeira.

Currently, the experts in Las Vegas have Teixeira as a whopping 440-point favorite over Bader, who comes in as the underdog at plus-350.

Now, it’s understandable on some level why Teixeira is the favorite—he’s undefeated in the UFC, on an incredible winning streak and has finished three out of his four opponents thus far by knockout or submission inside the first two rounds. He’s also the top pick to face the winner in the UFC 165 main event between Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson.

If there is one glaring difference when looking at Teixeira’s record next to Bader‘s, it’s the fact that one of them has faced a laundry list of top-ten fighters and the other hasn’t taken on one yet in the UFC.  

Throughout the course of his UFC career, Bader has faced some of the stiffest competition in the light heavyweight division and holds wins over fighters such as Quinton “Rampage” Jackson as well as Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. There’s no denying the losses on his record, either, to guys like Lyoto Machida and Jon Jones, but he’s taken on every challenge the UFC has presented him with head on.

So Bader admits it’s a bit puzzling why Teixeira is coming into their bout as such a decided favorite, but it gives him plenty of bulletin board material to gain motivation as he heads into Wednesday night’s fight in Brazil.

“I love to be in this position to have everybody counting me out,” Bader said. “Everybody will be real surprised at the end of the night when I go out there and get the win, and it just makes a little bit sweeter.”

Teixeira definitely has a lot of talent, but there’s also no getting around the fact that Bader will be by far his toughest test to date thus far in the Octagon. Hype is a funny thing in mixed martial arts because it can build a fighter up to the greatest heights and then tear him down just as easily when things go awry.

Bader knows that feeling all too well.

“It comes with the territory. People bring stuff out, I remember people saying ‘you got dropped by Tito (Ortiz), you suck,’ and they don’t credit any of my other wins or that I’m 17-3. It comes with the territory,” Bader said. “It does kind of piss you off a little bit when everybody is counting you out. The fans are counting you out. Glover’s talking about his fight with (Jon) Jones. Jones is talking about his fight with Glover in the future, all that kind of stuff.”

Since Jones took over the light heavyweight division in 2011, there hasn’t been another fighter touted as highly as Teixeira since he made his UFC debut. As a longtime training partner of former UFC champion Chuck Liddell, Teixeira’s name has been heard for years, but he’s just now making a major push into the 205-pound rankings.

Thus far in his UFC career, Teixeira has been virtually flawless, but there are still some facets of his game that we haven’t seen yet. Bader wants to see just how good Teixeira really is and put him to the test in their fight.

“I think the hype is justified coming in, being undefeated and going on an 18-fight win streak. That’s hard to do regardless of anybody. He hasn’t fought the same caliber of guys that I have,” Bader said. “Four out of my last six fights have been champions or former champions, and I’ve fought consistent top-ten guys, and he hasn’t. My three losses that I do have are to champions.

“I do think I’m the toughest guy he’s fought. It’s a step up in competition, and I look to spoil his plans and everybody else’s plans for him. We do have a five-round fight here for the main event. I feel he does get a little tired sometimes, and he can be put away. We’ve seen him rocked before, and we’ve never seen him on his back either. I look to exploit all those in the fight.”

While all the discussion going into UFC Fight Night 28 seems to be about Teixeira’s path to a title shot, Bader is happy to sit back in the shadows and let the spotlight shine down on his opponent.

All the talk and all the publicity in the world don’t matter on fight night, and Bader is looking to jumpstart his own career back into title discussion if he can dispatch Teixeira on Wednesday night.

“I feel like I’ve hit my stride as a fighter too and put everything together,” Bader said. “We saw a little bit of that with (Jason) Brilz and Rampage (Jackson), I had a setback with (Lyoto) Machida, and it was a quick fight after with (Vladdy) Matyushenko when I got the submission. I didn’t really get to show too much.

“I feel like I’m hitting my stride and have everything really come together. I think this is the fight where I do make that statement that I’m getting better every fight that I’m out there. I’m getting smarter, I’m in better shape and with just more experience. I feel like this fight is the fight where I go out there and prove a lot of people wrong. A lot of people are counting me totally out of this fight. It will put me closer to where I want to be and where I deserve to be.”

If Bader needs any kind of inspiration, he needs to look no further than his good friend Chris Weidman, whom he has trained with in the past and also shares the same manager. Weidman went into his fight against former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva with much closer odds than Bader will have against Teixeira, but despite him being the popular pick going into the fight, there was no doubt Silva was the one most expected to walk out with the belt that night.

Bader‘s faith in Weidman never wavered, and he came through with one of the biggest knockouts in MMA history. Now it’s Bader‘s turn to upend the tables on Teixeira and put his own name back on the map as one of the best light heavyweights in the UFC.

“I know I can go out there and beat him. I know I’m doing the right training and all that. Being counted out is the best thing,” Bader said. “I remember when we were at (Chris) Weidman‘s and Anderson (Silva’s) fight, and we were all sitting there eating before we were walking into the fight, and we were with a bunch of friends, and we’re all picking Weidman. There was a highlight of Weidman and then of Anderson Silva, and a couple of the friends looked at each other and they were like ‘I don’t know if he can do it.’ Then he went out there and did it and it was huge.

“That’s what I want to do to Glover. I want to get in there and beat him. It shoots me up the rankings and start getting talked about, and that’s how you get a title shot eventually. It starts right here, and I’m in a good position to do it.”

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

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Travis Browne to Ben Rothwell: ‘LOL… I’m Looking Forward, Not Back’

Ben Rothwell fought a fairly underwhelming fight for the majority of his UFC 164 contest with Brandon Vera. It may have been more a result of Vera’s backpedaling strategy, but Rothwell eventually got the finish.
Speaking with Joe Rogan after the fight,…

Ben Rothwell fought a fairly underwhelming fight for the majority of his UFC 164 contest with Brandon Vera. It may have been more a result of Vera’s backpedaling strategy, but Rothwell eventually got the finish.

Speaking with Joe Rogan after the fight, Rothwell called out Travis Browne. The UFC contender took to Twitter to respond to Rothwell’s callout.

 

Browne continued, saying Rothwell is out of his league:

Rothwell responded saying his callout wasn’t done maliciously.

Browne replied to the UFC 164 winner by saying he should earn the high-profile fights by his performance in the cage, not with an interview.

 

Rothwell and Browne were supposed to meet up last year, but an injury forced Rothwell out of action. Browne has subsequently shot up the rankings with wins over Gabriel Gonzaga and Alistair Overeem in his recent fights. Rothwell meanwhile has alternated wins and losses since joining the UFC’s ranks.

Rothwell was doing his best to help get a big matchup with the Wisconsin crowd behind him, and you cannot blame him since it seems a lot easier to get high-profile fights through talking rather than actually fighting.

You also cannot blame Browne for not being interested as it’s clear the two men are nowhere near one another in the heavyweight rankings.

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UFC 164 Results: Chad Mendes Wants Jose Aldo or Ricardo Lamas Next

Team Alpha Male standout Chad Mendes did everything in his power to make sure he wasn’t the odd man out in the crowded featherweight title picture, becoming the first man to knock out Clay Guida in his 44 professional fights.
With the decisive victory,…

Team Alpha Male standout Chad Mendes did everything in his power to make sure he wasn’t the odd man out in the crowded featherweight title picture, becoming the first man to knock out Clay Guida in his 44 professional fights.

With the decisive victory, “Money” has now made it four straight victories, all knockouts, since losing to divisional champ Jose Aldo at UFC 142 in January. 

Mendes believes he’s done enough to earn a rematch with “Scarface” and he also has a backup plan in mind if Aldo isn’t healthy enough to get back inside the Octagon sometime soon.

 

Mendes, the top-ranked 145-pounder in the UFC’s official rankings, would likely have a tough matchup on his hands with Ricardo Lamas, who is also riding a four-fight win streak. 

Lamas has finished top contenders Cub Swanson and Erik Koch since reinventing himself at featherweight, staking a claim for the next crack at Aldo. 

The top dog at featherweight, Aldo has won an incredible 16 bouts in a row, most recently taking out fan favorite Chan-Sung Jung at UFC 163 earlier this month. 

Aldo’s next move remains unclear, as both newly crowned lightweight champ Anthony Pettis and UFC President Dana White have expressed an interest in a Pettis-Aldo superfight, but a knee injury leaves “Showtime’s” return date up in the air (via MMA Junkie). 

Adding improved boxing and serious knockout power to his solid wrestling base, has Mendes done enough to earn a second chance to crack the Aldo puzzle?

 

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

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