Tag: Breaking News

UFC News: Tristar Head Trainer Invites BJ Penn to Train at His Gym

There is no love lost between former UFC lightweight/welterweight champion BJ Penn and the Tristar Gym in Montreal, Quebec. However, on the most recent edition of BJPenn.com Radio, head trainer Firas Zahabi invited “The Prodigy” to come train…

There is no love lost between former UFC lightweight/welterweight champion BJ Penn and the Tristar Gym in Montreal, Quebec. 

However, on the most recent edition of BJPenn.com Radio, head trainer Firas Zahabi invited “The Prodigy” to come train at his respected facility. 

“I think he’s a phenomenal fighter, I think he has a lot that he can still do,” Zahabi said. “I really think he can be where he used to be. I think he can make it back there. I’d love for him to come to Tristar and train with us and see what we do. We can have an exchange of ideas and how we could mutually benefit from such an experience. I really think he has a lot left in him, but that’s up to him. He has nothing to prove, he’s done everything in this sport and if he fights it’s for his own personal enjoyment and I would encourage him. If he doesn’t want to fight I don’t think he has anything to prove, he’s done it all so it’s really up to him and what he feels he wants to do.”

Penn has been training at his own gym, BJ Penn’s MMA in Hawaii, for years, a situation many blame for his recent for his 1-4-1 record in his past six fights. 

Many fans and analysts believe the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt doesn’t have the coaching staff and training partners necessary to reach his full potential, so its not unfathomable to think a gym change could breathe some life into his storied career. 

One of only two two-division champions in UFC history (the other being Randy Couture), Penn is 0-3 against Tristar fighters: losing to UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre twice, and most recently, rising star Rory MacDonald at UFC on FOX 5 last month. 

Penn has always had some trouble with high-level wrestlers throughout his 11-year, 27-fight career, and there are no shortage of those at Tristar. 

After his loss against MacDonald, Penn said he was going to “take some time” before he decided whether or not he would continue fighting. 

Following a lopsided decision loss to Nick Diaz at UFC 137 in Oct. 2011, Penn announced his retirement, but he found a challenge from MacDonald too enticing to turn down. 

Could a move to the Tristar Gym bring out the best in Penn, or is the UFC legend at the point where retirement is the only intelligent option?

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More Details Emerge Regarding Eddie Alvarez vs. Bellator Situation

Eddie Alvarez’s next contract as a fighter was destined to be decided by the courts ever since he agreed to a “first refusal” clause with his current promotion, Bellator. That clause means that, once he became a free agent in November…

Eddie Alvarez’s next contract as a fighter was destined to be decided by the courts ever since he agreed to a “first refusal” clause with his current promotion, Bellator.

That clause means that, once he became a free agent in November, Alvarez, 28, was free to field offers from any other promotion, as long as Bellator was given 14 days to match the offer.

Being that he is the most desired free agent in MMA, no promotion could ever match the offer the UFC could put on the table, simply because it’s the biggest in the whole of the promotion.

That means, if Bellator wanted to keep the lightweight sensation, they were always going to have to fight for him.

Earlier we noted that the UFC offered Alvarez an eight-fight contract worth $70,000 in “show” money for each fight, plus a $70,000 bonus for each win with an additional $5,000 escalation for each additional win, to a maximum of $210,000. The UFC also offered a $250,000 signing bonus.

Alvarez would get an immediate title shot if he joins the UFC, as well as a coaching spot on a season of The Ultimate Fighter, a fight on a Fox card and three commentary opportunities.

In a detailed analysis of court documents by Sports Illustrated, it’s clear that Bellator lawyers, under instruction from president Bjorn Rebney, went to great pains to match the UFC’s offer.

Bellator, which was recently purchased by media conglomerate Viacom, also offered Alvarez front-line TV promotion, which includes a Spike TV behind-the-scenes special, for which he’d be compensated $25,000; a season-two coaching position on Bellator‘s reality TV show (with the caveat that he must win back the Bellator title first) carrying a $100,000 payday; and a one-time, guest-host stint during Spike’s “Road to the Championship” series.

As SI says:

Other than these added incentives, the Zuffa and Bellator contract offers mostly mirror one another, and for good reason. Bellator deliberately took Zuffa‘s contract and red-lined it, substituting its own name in for Zuffa‘s, so the aforementioned terms, and their verbiage, remained unaltered. (This red-lined version was included in Bellator‘s lawsuit exhibits).

However, Alvarez’s lawyer, Steve Klein, in an email to Rebney, said the two offers were not identical. Bellator‘s claim largely hinges on whether fighting on Fox Network Television with the UFC is the same as fighting on Spike TV with Bellator.

“Match means match. Match means provision by provision, term by term,” said Klein (h/t SI).

Term by term, they have to offer the same thing…[Fox Network Television to Spike TV] is, of course, clearly the most major change… The value of the contracts are different, as is the ability to deliver under the contracts… Monetarily, it will mean different things to [Alvarez.] This is not a match.

This argument raises the obvious conclusion that Bellator never really had the capacity to match the UFC’s offer considering that Bellator doesn’t have a Fox deal. But Rebney insists, in Bellator’s submission to the New Jersey courthouse which is deciding the case; that Spike’s audience of 100 million is equivalent to Fox’s 110 million, even though the former is on paid cable while the latter is on free-to-air television.

“We can ultimately match [a Fox bout’s] numbers very easily by replaying Ed’s fights in primetime on Spike TV,” said Rebney. “It boils down to how many people see the fight, and we’re completely prepared, if that became an issue, to replay Ed’s fights.”

The case continues.

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Michael Bisping Hopes Referee ‘Has the Balls’ to Stop Belfort’s Illegal Punches

Michael Bisping is making it clear that he expects Vitor Belfort to take advantage of a bad situation during their main event fight at UFC on FX 7.Whether it’s illegal punches to the back of the head or the possibility of being fueled by testoster…

Michael Bisping is making it clear that he expects Vitor Belfort to take advantage of a bad situation during their main event fight at UFC on FX 7.

Whether it’s illegal punches to the back of the head or the possibility of being fueled by testosterone replacement therapy, “The Count” says that Belfort‘s “bully” tactics will eventually start to fail him, UFC legend or not.

In Bisping‘s latest guest post penned at Yahoo Sports, the famed MMA Englishman outlines his hopes that Belfort won’t be able to cheat his way to a win:

I was disappointed Vitor Belfort started talking in tongues when asked about TRT recently. He had a little more to say on Monday when he was asked directly about my concerns that all his recent UFC fights were won by illegal punches to the back of the head. In between lengthy references to the New Testament, Belfort basically said he doesn’t care if he hits opponents behind the head.

How he’s gotten away with this in his career is a mystery to me, and I hope we have a strong referee who has the balls to do something about it – if it happens – with thousands of Belfort supporters screaming in the stands. And of course it is down to me to make sure I’m not put in a position where he can unloaded [sic] these kinds of shots.

Most notably, Belfort‘s latest instance of winning a fight with illegal back-of-the-head punches came at the expense of Japanese fighter Yoshihiro Akiyama, who went down to strikes in the first round of their UFC 133 bout.

To date, though, Bisping has only been stopped on strikes once, and that was a haymaker blow from one of the sport’s hardest punchers in Dan Henderson.

Fans will get to see whether Bisping‘s chin (or the back of his skull) can hold up against Belfort‘s striking soon enough, as the two top middleweights are still set to face-off at the Ibirapuera Arena in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Should Bisping win, he’s expected to achieve a career-long dream and face Anderson Silva for the UFC middleweight title.

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Eddie Alvarez UFC Offer Included Pay-Per-View Share, Commentary Opportunities

The UFC would plan to give Eddie Alvarez an immediate title shot and a cut of the proceeds whenever he fights on pay-per-view, according to court documents.MMAJunkie obtained the documents, which were submitted as part of Bellator’s lawsuit against Alv…

The UFC would plan to give Eddie Alvarez an immediate title shot and a cut of the proceeds whenever he fights on pay-per-view, according to court documents.

MMAJunkie obtained the documents, which were submitted as part of Bellator’s lawsuit against Alvarez, their former lightweight champion and now a coveted free agent. 

The UFC’s contract offer is plenty lucrative from a pure financial standpoint, but it also contains several non-monetary provisions presumably designed to sweeten the deal.

Under the terms of the eight-fight deal detailed in the court document, Alvarez (24-3) would earn $70,000 in “show” money for each fight, plus a $70,000 bonus for each win with an additional $5,000 escalation for each additional win, to a maximum of $210,000. The UFC also offered a $250,000 signing bonus.

Along with the immediate title shot, the UFC proposal offers Alvarez, 28, a fight on a Fox card and three commentary opportunities.

In the dispute between Bellator and Alvarez, Bellator officials claim they matched the UFC’s offer, a claim Alvarez denies. That disagreement is at the heart of the current lawsuit, which Alvarez announced Monday on The MMA Hour broadcast.

Although Bellator may have matched the details of the UFC’s deal, a primary difference between the proposals necessarily lies in the PPV portion of the UFC offer. According to the court documents, the UFC is prepared to pay Alvarez $1 for every buy the UFC receives for each PPV event in which Alvarez appears. That number goes up to $2 per buy when total buys reach 400,000-600,000, and $2.50 when it exceeds 600,000.

Bellator is literally unable to match this provision, as Bellator currently does not air fights on PPV.

Bellator also offered Alvarez a $25,000 payout for appearing in a Spike TV show and a $100,000 payment for coaching in Bellator’s reality TV competition. He was also offered various appearances on other Bellator and Spike programming.

Adding still more intrigue to the proceedings is one small but important word in the UFC’s offer. According to a tweet from MMAJunkie reporter Steven Marrocco, the UFC offer does include wiggle room in what it proposes:

 

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UFC’s Hector Lombard: ‘Let’s Cut the Bullshit’ About Fight vs. Anderson Silva

Hector Lombard isn’t happy that he’s being overlooked for a shot at the UFC Middleweight Championship, and he’s calling out every title contender.During an interview with News.com.au, “Lightning” Lombard essentially called out every top 185-pounder in …

Hector Lombard isn’t happy that he’s being overlooked for a shot at the UFC Middleweight Championship, and he’s calling out every title contender.

During an interview with News.com.au, “Lightning” Lombard essentially called out every top 185-pounder in the division, stating that he wants to leave no guess to who should really getting the next crack at the MMA pound-for-pound kingpin:

I just don’t want to fight guys that they say: “[Oh,] that was [an] easy match-up for him.” I want to fight the hardest match-up. I wish they (the UFC) could go now and make a pool of the toughest guys at 84kg that no one wants to fight and I want to fight that guy.

Not many people want to fight Palhares. Before we had the fight people were saying: “Hector is gone, Phalares [sic] is taking Hector’s leg back to Brazil.” I would like to fight Chris Weidman, he’s a big name. I’ve been asking for (Yushin) Okami, I’ve been asking for Okami but they (UFC) won’t give him to me because of his chin. Okami has no chin, he can’t cop the punches. And where’s Jake Shields? He’s been around forever, he beat Dan Henderson. Those are the guys I want to fight.

Originally, the UFC seemed to be angling Lombard towards title contention after a high-profile contract signing that brought the Cuban-Australian fighter up from Bellator’s own middleweight division.

But despite a long reign with Bellator’s middleweight title, three regional MMA titles, an extremely decorated Judo background and a gaudy 32-3-1 record (with one “No Contest”), a past upset to loss Tim Boetsch took away much of Lombard’s steam.

However, Lombard says that the UFC just won’t give him Anderson Silva, despite his hyped arrival into the promotion and dominant 25-1-1 stretch over nearly six years:

Let’s cut the bullshit, let’s be honest, they won’t give me Anderson Silva. We have to be realistic and talk about things that might happen.

I’ve got to take one fight at a time and one-by-one I can take them out and by the end of the year people are going to say he deserves the title shot. I want it to just be my hard work. I want people to say that no one deserves the title more than him.

Future plans aside, Lombard will have the chance to improve his 1-1 UFC record when he faces Yushin Okami during the main card of UFC on Fuel 8, taking place on March 3 at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan.

That fight will support a heavy card of matches, including a main-event bout between Wanderlei Silva and Brian Stann.

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UFC 158: Sean Pierson vs. Rick Story Added to Welterweight Heavy Card

MMA Weekly reports that Sean Pierson vs. Rick Story will be the sixth welterweight fight on the UFC 158 fight card, set to take place in Montreal on March 16. The card is headlined by Georges St-Pierre’s long awaited title defence against Nick Di…

MMA Weekly reports that Sean Pierson vs. Rick Story will be the sixth welterweight fight on the UFC 158 fight card, set to take place in Montreal on March 16.

The card is headlined by Georges St-Pierre’s long awaited title defence against Nick Diaz, while Rory MacDonald gets a chance to avenge his loss to Carlos Condit in the co-main.

Pierson adds to the Canadian flavour of the card. A former Toronto police officer, Pierson has gone 2-2 in his last four matches. Having lost two back-to-back fights in 2011 against Jake Ellenberger and Kim Dong Hyun, he did well last year with two wins against Jake Hecht and Lance Benoist.

Going against him is Story who—between 2010 and 2011—was rocketing towards a title shot by winning six straight fights and defeating the likes of Thiago Alves and current top welterweight contender Johny Hendricks.

However, he’s gone 1-3 since, losing to Charlie Brenneman, Martin Kampmann and Demian Maia in his last match, leaving his future at the promotion in a precarious situation.

The remaining fights on the UFC 158 card will also feature Canadian welterweights. Patrick Côté takes on Bobby Voelker, and Jordan Mein takes on Dan Miller.

Côté will be making his welterweight debut after losing to Cung Le last July and then winning by disqualification due to punches to the back of the head against Alessio Sakara. He was expected to rematch Sakara, but has instead decided to drop down a division.

UFC 158 will be a big night for the whole division. Not just because the champion defends his belt once again but because the No. 2 contender, Johny Hendricks, will also be fighting for his shot.

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