Tag: Breaking News

The Ultimate Fighter 17: Watch UFC Champ Ronda Rousey Spar vs. Uriah Hall

During Episode 10 of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Jones vs. Team Sonnen, Ronda Rousey paid a visit to Las Vegas to give Chael Sonnen’s crew a judo lesson.Unsurprisingly, the UFC women’s bantamweight champion and former Olympian had no problem putting “Te…

During Episode 10 of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Jones vs. Team Sonnen, Ronda Rousey paid a visit to Las Vegas to give Chael Sonnen‘s crew a judo lesson.

Unsurprisingly, the UFC women’s bantamweight champion and former Olympian had no problem putting “Team Darkside” on their backs.

And that included Uriah Hall.

Although the hard-hitting middleweight bruiser outweighed Rousey by a good 50 pounds, even Hall couldn’t stop Rousey from locking in armbars during a friendly sparring match.

While their full training session wasn’t aired during the episode’s broadcast, the UFC and FX have now released the full tape.

Rousey was impressed that everyone on Team Sonnen “kept their cool” during their sparring sessions, despite the fact that she was armbarring plenty of people left and right:

A lot of the guys I roll with, I call it “testosterone poisoning”—where I get a couple of [moves] on them and they try to rough me up back because they get frustrated.

[Team Sonnen] kept their composure and it’s a quality that’s very valuable in fighters. If you can’t keep your composure in practice against some chick, if you’re in a ring with some dude swinging at your head, you’re not going keep your composure there, y’know?

Hall was impressed by the women’s champion, stating that the only defense against Rousey‘s “legit” armbar was to simply tap before it was even locked.

Overall, Rousey caught Hall into two armbar submissions using judo flips and some high-paced scrambles on the mat, although Hall was able to last much longer on the second attempt.

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Marcus Brimage Plans on Giving Overrated Conor McGregor a “Reality Check”

There seems to be quite a bit of hype surrounding UFC on Fuel 9 competitor Conor McGregor, as he makes his Octagon debut this weekend in Sweden. A two-weight-class champion in another promotion, McGregor has been in the spotlight already with documenta…

There seems to be quite a bit of hype surrounding UFC on Fuel 9 competitor Conor McGregor, as he makes his Octagon debut this weekend in Sweden.

A two-weight-class champion in another promotion, McGregor has been in the spotlight already with documentaries being aired about his rise to success, and that was before he ever even signed with the UFC earlier this year.

His opponent this weekend, Marcus Brimage, has heard all the stories about McGregor, and as he understands it, the young Irishman is going to be a popular pick on Saturday.  He’s watched plenty of video on McGregor, and he’s not really sure where all the hype is coming from outside of a few flashy finishes against subpar opponents.

“I looked the guy up and he’s like the Irish gospel, he’s like the second coming in Ireland.  Everyone’s just going crazy about him saying that he’s on the short path to (Jose) Aldo, he’s got two belts, so I really didn’t give a damn,” Brimage told Bleacher Report.  “I looked up his opponents and I looked up his fights and f—king all his opponents were just scared sh—less before they ever walked into the ring.  They were petrified, they couldn’t even do anything against him before the fights even started.”

Brimage is pretty positive looking at the fights that McGregor‘s had over the past couple of years that he could duplicate those same performances if he lined up similar talent.

“I told everybody I can go back to Alabama state fairgrounds, put some bums in the ring, whoop their asses, and put all my cousins in the stands to make sure it looked good. I could do that, but that doesn’t mean nothing,” said Brimage.  “He fights in Cage Warriors and then he got all his cousins in the stands saying ‘Go Ireland!’ and he clowns the dude and it makes him look fantastic.”

The hype surrounding McGregor also comes with a certain level of expectation, and that brings plenty of pressure behind it as well.

Brimage has already knocked off two other competitors of similar pedigree in Jim Hettes and Maximo Blanco, who appeared to be on the fast track to fame and fortune when he beat them in the Octagon.  Whether he sees his name in lights come Saturday night isn’t important, but Brimage promises to send McGregor back to Ireland with a UFC loss and a big bruised ego to match.

“I’m still gonna come up in there as the underdog, like I always am, and I’m just going to do my thing like I always do,” Brimage stated.  “He’s going to come out there thinking I’m a lollipop that he can just clown and then that’s when he’s going to get a reality check.”

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

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Alexander Gustafsson Officially out of UFC on Fuel 9 Main Event

The long saga surrounding Alexander Gustafsson’s status for this weekend’s UFC on Fuel 9 card has finally been determined by the Swedish MMA Federation, and it appears Gegard Mousasi will have a new opponent for Saturday night. Doctors have decided aga…

The long saga surrounding Alexander Gustafsson‘s status for this weekend’s UFC on Fuel 9 card has finally been determined by the Swedish MMA Federation, and it appears Gegard Mousasi will have a new opponent for Saturday night.

Doctors have decided against clearing Gustafsson for action on Saturday’s card after the Swedish-born fighter suffered a cut over his eye just days away from his scheduled bout.

According to a press release emailed to Bleacher Report on Tuesday, the Swedish MMA Federation doctors first checked out Gustafsson‘s condition on March 30, but at the time had no recourse to decide if he would be able to fight or not.

“According to SMMAF regulations the competitors in a match shall be examined by the certified appointed match doctor prior to the match,” read the release. “The examination is always carried out the day before the match, this is to safeguard that a competitor shall never be cleared for a match earlier than the day before the match.

“In the case of Alexander Gustafsson there was a request for an early indicative medical examination, which was immediately performed on March 30th (Easter Eve). The federation doctors that performed the examination informed Gustafsson that his injury was of such a nature that it was very unlikely that he would be medically cleared for a match in the near future. These doctors did not have a mandate to stop the match at the time of that examination.”

The news of Gustafsson‘s pending removal from the upcoming fight card first surfaced on Sunday, when reports out of Sweden began leaking that he had suffered a cut in training and his status for Saturday’s fight card was in jeopardy.

Since that time, UFC officials including president Dana White have gone on the record on numerous occasions stating that the fight between Gustafsson and Mousasi was going ahead as planned.

Still, rumors persisted that Gustafsson might not gain clearance in time to fight on Saturday, and the doctors in Sweden decided to follow up with a second check on Tuesday and made the final call that he would not be allowed to compete this weekend.

“The SMMAF Medical Committee has today reviewed the circumstances regarding Gustafsson and his injury,” the commission stated via press release. “The SMMAF Medical Committee recognizes that a competitor cannot be medically cleared earlier than the day before the match. However, bearing in mind that a correct medical examination that met the regulatory demands has been performed, nothing in the SMMAF regulations hinders the SMMAF Medical Committee from making a decision to stop Gustafsson from competing. As it is clear that Alexander Gustafsson will not be fit to compete as planned and cannot be medically cleared on Friday the 5th of April, the SMMAF Medical Committee has today decided that Alexander Gustafsson will not be allowed to participate in the planned match on April 6th.”

The unfortunate side of this news is the fact that Gustafsson‘s exit from the card happens just four days away from the event, and the options have to be limited for what the UFC can do to even possibly replace him by fight night.

His opponent Gegard Mousasi is already in Sweden and obviously awaits word like the rest of the world on what happens next. UFC officials have yet to make any statement about the UFC on Fuel 9 main event.

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report.

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Gegard Mousasi Calls Wanderlei Silva ‘Idiot of the Year’ and a ‘Jackass’

At least one individual was anything but amused by Wanderlei Silva’s April Fool’s joke saying he was fighting Gegard Mousasi at UFC on FUEL 9 Saturday: Gegard Mousasi. “The Dreamcatcher” took to Twitter almost immediately after hearing the ne…

At least one individual was anything but amused by Wanderlei Silva‘s April Fool’s joke saying he was fighting Gegard Mousasi at UFC on FUEL 9 Saturday: Gegard Mousasi. 

“The Dreamcatcher” took to Twitter almost immediately after hearing the news, bashing “The Axe Murderer” for a prank he clearly believed to be in bad taste:

 

 

The Armenian-Dutch fighter accepted a fight with Silva yesterday, so he obviously at least thought fighting the PRIDE legend was a realistic possibility 

For the time being. Mousasi is still set to face Alexander Gustafsson in the evening’s main event, though that could change in a matter of hours if “The Mauler” isn’t cleared by the Swedish MMA Federation.

Mousasi makes his UFC debut on the heels of a 5-0-1 run in his past six fights, most recently submitting Mike Kyle with a rear-naked choke at Strikeforce’s final event in January.

Meanwhile, Gustafsson is riding a six-fight win streak, including four finishes, earning him the No. 2 spot on the UFC’s official light heavyweight rankings. 

Should he be forced to withdraw from the headlining bout this weekend in front of his Stockholm, Sweden home crowd, Gustafsson would miss a golden opportunity to earn a title fight next. 

As of early Tuesday afternoon, Silva has not responded to Mousasi‘s disparaging remarks. 

Was Wanderlei‘s April Fool’s joke just a fighter having fun, or was it actually a really poor idea to begin with given the situation at hand?

Additionally, could this ordeal open the doors for a Silva vs. Mousasi matchup regardless of if the former Strikeforce and DREAM champ wins Saturday night?

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Dominick Cruz: Having UFC Bantamweight Title Taken Away Would Be ‘Devastating’

In case you were wondering, Dominick Cruz is still the UFC Bantamweight champion. No, he hasn’t stepped inside the Octagon to defend that title since he defeated Demetrious Johnson back on October 1, 2011, but he remains the owner of that ti…

In case you were wondering, Dominick Cruz is still the UFC Bantamweight champion. 

No, he hasn’t stepped inside the Octagon to defend that title since he defeated Demetrious Johnson back on October 1, 2011, but he remains the owner of that title.

Cruz was set to defend that title against his nemesis, former WEC champion Urijah Faber, but a torn ACL during the filming of The Ultimate Fighter Live scuppered that fight.

Things went from bad to worse for Cruz when his body said, “I see what you’re trying to do here, but, no sale” to the cadaver ACL that was used to repair his injury. The rejection of that ACL forced Cruz to go under the knife a second time in December 2012.

Cruz is once again on the mend and hoping to get back in the Octagon to defend his title before the end of 2013.

And Cruz hasn’t been sitting around eating bonbons during his rehab.

He’s been visible on UFC TV broadcasts. He has been able to start some light rehab work. And he’s immersed himself in coaching the fighters at Alliance Training Center.

In Cruz’s absence, Renan Barao has captured the Interim UFC Bantamweight title. Cruz has nothing but good things to say about Barao and the job he has done as interim champion, but Cruz made it clear he believes he thinks he is the best 135-pounder in the world.

Cruz recently spoke to Rick Lee about his situation. Check out the video as the champ talks rehab, Urijah Faber, yoga, being weird and his upcoming meeting with the UFC.

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Wanderlei Silva Says Fighting Gegard Mousasi Was April Fool’s Joke

Former PRIDE champion Wanderlei Silva had a good portion of the MMA community believing that he was filling in for an injured Alexander Gustafsson and fighting Gegard Mousasi at UFC on FUEL 9 this Saturday in Sweden. However, a tweet from “The Axe…

Former PRIDE champion Wanderlei Silva had a good portion of the MMA community believing that he was filling in for an injured Alexander Gustafsson and fighting Gegard Mousasi at UFC on FUEL 9 this Saturday in Sweden. 

However, a tweet from “The Axe Murderer” Tuesday morning confirmed what certain fans and analysts (and even UFC President Dana White) were saying all along: April Fools!

 

 

The Brazilian brawler’s name came into play when rumors swirled on Easter Sunday that Gustafsson suffered a facial cut and would be forced to withdraw from Saturday’s headlining bout. 

The 36-year-old sent out a tweet yesterday stating he was offered and accepted a fight with Mousasi and even updated by saying that he was flying out to Sweden for the event. 

Oddly enough, Mousasi seemed to be just as in the dark as the fans, indicating that he would be open to fighting Silva if “The Mauler” wasn’t able to go. 

Despite calls for his retirement in recent years, Silva showed he still has some gas left in the tank by scoring a brutal knockout over Brian Stann at UFC on FUEL 8 last month in the show’s main event. 

Silva has now won two of his past three bouts, as well as three of his past five. His two most recent wins, over Stann and Cung Le, came by (T)KO. 

While it has been established that Wanderlei won’t be fighting, Gustafsson‘s status remains up in the air as he is yet to have his cut cleared by the Swedish MMA Federation. 

As of this writing, all that can be said for sure is that Mousasi still plans on fighting Saturday night. 

“The Dreamcatcher,” currently listed as No. 10 in the UFC’s official light heavyweight rankings, makes his UFC debut on the strength of a 5-0-1 run in his past six fights.

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