Tag: Breaking News

UFC Contender Dan Henderson Expects to Retire in 2014 After Four More Fights

Having just cleared 42 years of age, former Strikeforce and two-division Pride FC champion Dan Henderson is expecting to end his career in the next couple of years.Although he’ll be a good three years off from getting anywhere close to scratching the t…

Having just cleared 42 years of age, former Strikeforce and two-division Pride FC champion Dan Henderson is expecting to end his career in the next couple of years.

Although he’ll be a good three years off from getting anywhere close to scratching the title of “Oldest Fighter to Win a UFC Fight”—a distinction held solely by UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture—Henderson tells Brazilian publication TATAME (via Google Translate) that he’ll most likely hang up his gloves at the end of 2014.

Counting his upcoming UFC 157 bout with former UFC champion Lyoto Machida, “Hendo” states he has four more fights left, with two apiece over the next 24 months.

“I have to fight a couple more years. I have at least two more fights ahead of me next year, so I guess that would make at least two more fights after that,” [Henderson] said in an exclusive interview to TATAME.

Hendo always said that one purpose of his trip was to win the UFC belt, it would be one of the few remaining for [his] collection. Today, however, he says the goal [has] changed a bit of focus and [he] will not get upset if [he has] to retire without the title.

Despite being considered one of the world’s top pound-for-pound MMA fighters with recent wins over Shogun Rua and Fedor Emelianenko, Henderson has never won a UFC championship due to extended careers in Pride, King of Kings and Strikeforce.

However, the Team Quest founder still carries a 6-2 record in the promotion dating back to 1998 with victories at five separate UFC pay-per-view events.

At UFC 157, Henderson will star in the co-main event slot against Machida, with newly-crowned women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey defending her belt against fellow Strikeforce veteran Liz Carmouche on Feb. 23 at Anaheim’s Honda Center.

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Jose Aldo’s Coach Says ‘1 More Year’ Before Move to UFC Lightweight Division

Sooner or later, UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo is moving up to the lightweight division, says Nova Uniao head trainer and one-time UFC veteran Andre Pederneiras.Aldo’s weight cut is notable for being especially torturous on the young f…

Sooner or later, UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo is moving up to the lightweight division, says Nova Uniao head trainer and one-time UFC veteran Andre Pederneiras.

Aldo’s weight cut is notable for being especially torturous on the young fighter, whom Pederneiras claims is still growing, even at 26 years old.

But for Aldo, the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t so far away. During an interview with MMA Junkie Radio (via MMA Junkie), Pederneiras acknowledged that it’ll soon be time to allow Aldo the extra 10 pounds, outlining the current career plan for his prized champion:

Every fight, he wants to fight at 155 pounds. “I don’t want to cut any more weight.” Every day I listen to him about that.

I think for him it’s better to wait a little bit because he’s putting on mass every year. He doesn’t need to put so much mass that he can’t move the same. He’s gaining weight because he’s so young. I don’t want to put pressure on him to gain weight. I prefer to wait maybe one more year.

As MMA Junkie points out, Aldo wouldn’t be a very tall lightweight at 5’7″, but that didn’t stop the even-shorter former UFC champion Frankie Edgar (5’6″) from crawling his way to the top of the 155-pound division over much larger fighters.

Speaking of which, Aldo’s last fight at featherweight could possibly be against Edgar himself, as the two men are slated to face each other at UFC 156 on Feb. 2 in Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center for Aldo’s featherweight title.

Provided both fighters remain un-injured, it’ll be Aldo’s sixth consecutive title defense (counting his WEC career) and Edgar’s seventh consecutive title fight.

Regardless of the outcome, Edgar expects to remain at featherweight to use his size advantage against the rest of the division.

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Greg Jackson Calls Jones vs. Sonnen a Tough Puzzle, Says Sonnen “Earned It”

UFC champion Jon Jones may not think that Chael Sonnen deserves a shot at his light heavyweight title, but his own head trainer doesn’t completely agree.During a short interview with FightHub TV, Greg Jackson actually had nothing but praise for the for…

UFC champion Jon Jones may not think that Chael Sonnen deserves a shot at his light heavyweight title, but his own head trainer doesn’t completely agree.

During a short interview with FightHub TV, Greg Jackson actually had nothing but praise for the former middleweight title contender, noting that Sonnen is much bigger challenge than people think:

The match-ups don’t really matter to me because it’s not my job to pick them. I just have to solve the puzzle that’s in front of us. It’s a tough puzzle. It’s actually going to be a tougher fight than people think. I don’t take it lightly.

It’s not surprising that Jones’ coach is wary of Sonnen, especially given that Sonnen has previously defeated two of his most high-profile fighters already.

Despite Jackson’s usual gameplans, Sonnen was able to beat both Brian Stann at UFC 136 and Nate Marquardt at UFC 109, finishing the former by a rare submission via arm triangle choke. That puts Sonnen at 2-0 against Greg Jackson’s team, and a win over Jones would be quite a hat trick.

That’s likely why Jackson thinks so highly of Sonnen‘s skills, as he praised various examples of the Oregon native’s athletic qualities that make him a threat to other fighters. Somewhat surprisingly, Jackson even claimed that he thought Sonnen deserved to fight Jones despite coming off a loss:

He earned it in some ways. [Just] because he fought and basically lost to Anderson [Silva] twice, you can’t fault anybody for that—Anderson’s amazing. I think [Sonnen]’s got legitimate credentials. You’d have to talk to rest of the division more than the coach to figure out if he talked his way into it or not.

Regardless of whether or not he deserves it, Sonnen will face Jones at a future date for the UFC light heavyweight title—his third title fight in just five fights. But first, MMA fans will get to see how both men interacted as opposing coaches on Season 17 of The Ultimate Fighter, premiering in its new Tuesday night slot, Jan. 22 on FX.

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UFC’s Forrest Griffin Takes Injury Photo, Shows Horribly Mangled Knee

Forrest Griffin won’t have to worry about losing to a guy in pink tights, thanks to his knee injury.Although he was originally scheduled to fight Phil Davis as part of the main card at UFC 155, Griffin was ultimately forced to pull out of the match aft…

Forrest Griffin won’t have to worry about losing to a guy in pink tights, thanks to his knee injury.

Although he was originally scheduled to fight Phil Davis as part of the main card at UFC 155, Griffin was ultimately forced to pull out of the match after citing a knee injury.

Now, we know just how bad the damage really was.

Sending out a rather gruesome photo from his Twitter account, Griffin revealed his patched-up knee, now a swollen mess of stitching, scrapes and medical tape.

Griffin has battled a few injuries during the course of his Octagon career, the most common one being a recurring shoulder injury that sidelined him from a UFC 114 bout with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

However, this MCL tear and ACL strain appears to be the worst one yet.

UFC 155 has been plagued with injuries and schedule changes from the get-go.

Previously, middleweight contender Chris Weidman dropped out of a match with Tim Boetsch due to shoulder injury, while top lightweight Gray Maynard was scrubbed from his fight with Joe Lauzon after complications to his knee necessitated surgery.

Both fighters have been replaced by Constantinos Philippou and Jim Miller, respectively.

Hopefully, UFC 155 stays intact with its main event, a heavyweight title fight between champion Junior dos Santos and challenger Cain Velasquez. If so, the card will go down this Saturday, Dec. 29, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Tim Kennedy to Strikeforce Fighters: ‘Are You Just a Bunch of Little Vaginas?’

Two-time Strikeforce middleweight title challenger Tim Kennedy is a former Staff Sergeant in the United States Army, so it makes sense that he isn’t big on pulling out of a scheduled fight. He questioned whether or not Strikeforce fighters withdra…

Two-time Strikeforce middleweight title challenger Tim Kennedy is a former Staff Sergeant in the United States Army, so it makes sense that he isn’t big on pulling out of a scheduled fight. 

He questioned whether or not Strikeforce fighters withdrawing from recent advertised bouts are legitimately injured in an interview with Bloody Elbow. 

“Well, I don’t know. Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. It’s pathetic and convenient for every single marquee fighter in all of Strikeforce, that we all know to be going over to the UFC, are pulling out of their fights, two weeks before the final card. It’s like, are you guys fighters, or are you just a bunch of little vaginas?”

Kennedy is set to meet Trevor Smith on the Strikeforce: Champions card on Jan. 12, the promotion’s last event, which originally had the lightweight, welterweight and middleweight title holders defending their belts. 

However, Gilbert Melendez, the 155-pound champ, and Luke Rockhold, the middleweight title holder, both recently withdrew from the event citing training injuries. 

Although he didn’t name anyone specifically, Kennedy took umbrage with the fact that some Strikeforce fighters who aren’t fighting at the January event are calling out competitors signed with the UFC.

“The whole thing seems like a big bunch of horse s***. Yeah, I’m gonna call all these dudes out, because I’m a super tough fighter, this is MY hood, fight me, blah blah blah, oh wait, I hurt my wrist, and I’m gonna be going to the UFC, so I’m not gonna fight. I’m just gonna wait and fight somebody in the UFC. What? What just happened? Blech. Whatever.”

This was likely a thinly-veiled short at Melendez, as “El Nino” stated earlier in the month that he wants to be the next man to challenge UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson for the title. 

The Greg Jackson MMA product also indicates that he has never pulled out of a fight due to injury and wishes more fighters had that same mentality. 

“I’ve never backed out of a fight for an injury. Ever. One time I was asked to take a fight, and I had to decline because I was already injured. I had torn my toe off. I just told them I couldn’t do it, not on four weeks notice, directly following having had my toe surgically placed back on my foot, but I’ve never backed out of a fight I’d already accepted. I’m kind of with Chael Sonnen, where I just don’t get guys backing out of fights.”

Kennedy is just 2-2 in his past four fights, though both losses were in middleweight championship fights against Ronaldo Souza and Rockhold, respectively. 

Would certain Strikeforce fighters actually fake injuries to give themselves better odds of getting an offer from the UFC, or is Kennedy completely off base with his comments here?

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Roy Nelson Believes Fight Could’ve Been Different Against Junior Dos Santos

Roy “Big Country” Nelson is no stranger to making headlines. Nelson is routinely one of the more outspoken fighters in the game today, and has no qualms about making his opinion known. It’s a trait that’s annoyed Dana White to no end, but has helped ma…

Roy “Big Country” Nelson is no stranger to making headlines. Nelson is routinely one of the more outspoken fighters in the game today, and has no qualms about making his opinion known. It’s a trait that’s annoyed Dana White to no end, but has helped make Nelson one of the more popular fighters in the sport.

Nelson shared some of his insight with Steph Daniels of BloodyElbow.com in a recent interview. The former Ultimate Fighter winner sounded off a number of topics, including his bout with UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos.

“I think even back then, if I’d had two extra rounds, it could have been a different fight.”

Although dos Santos did appear to tire as the rounds wore on, that was more due to the fact that he threw everything he could at Nelson for 15 minutes. Granted, while Nelson is always one punch away from a victory, that punch likely never would’ve landed, given how bad of a beating JDS was putting on him at the time.

A vicious beating is what some MMA fans were expecting when Colton Smith and Mike Ricci met one another to decide the winner of the most recent season of TUF. Although Ricci is a natural lightweight, he was predicted to walk through Smith en route to winning another achievement for the Tristar gym.

Instead of Ricci dominating, Smith used a solid game plan to control every round en route to winning an unanimous decision. Although Smith was a Team Nelson fighter, Nelson wasn’t impressed by the performance.

“I think at the end of the day, when you’re in TUF, it’s a game show. The goal is to win, so if Colton Smith had the ugliest fight, but won the show, like he did, they have to give him a contract, because that’s the rules. He won the show, and after that, he can fight any which way he wants. They can’t take it away from him, because it’s a game show. He had a game plan, and he executed it. He went out there and rode a guy’s back for three rounds. I think they thought Mike Ricci was gonna win, otherwise GSP wouldn’t have gotten on a plane and come out to be in his corner, but Colton beat him up.”

Nelson fought Matt Mitrione in the main event of that card, but was originally scheduled to face his opposing coach Shane Carwin. Nelson attempted to get both Carwin and Mitrione to agree to VADA testing, but neither man agreed.

Carwin cited an article on VADA‘s website that appeared to be very biased against Carwin as his main reason for not agreeing to the test. Mitrione, taking the fight on short notice, said he needed to focus his camp on proportions for the fight, not drug testing.

Nelson isn’t buying what their selling.

“…it has nothing to do with calling people out or accusing them of anything. It has to do with cleaning up the sport. I want to help keep the sport as pure as possible.

“I think a lot of people get confused. When I say ‘get sponsored’, I mean on both sides, both fighters. I’ve basically taken all your freaking excuses out. ‘Oh, it’s gonna cost me money.’ Nope. I’ve taken that out. ‘Oh, I don’t have time.’ Nope. They come to you. You shouldn’t have excuses. It’s a yes or no question. You either think you’re clean, or you’re not.”

Nelson also stated that he believes he has another 10 years of fighting ahead of him. I’m sure White is relishing the chance to work with “Big Country” for another decade.

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