Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard will meet at UFC 131 on May 28. The fight will mark the third time that these two competitors have met. It will be the second time they will do battle for Edgar’s UFC lightweight title.The first time the two fought, in…
Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard will meet at UFC 131 on May 28. The fight will mark the third time that these two competitors have met. It will be the second time they will do battle for Edgar’s UFC lightweight title.
The first time the two fought, in 2008, Maynard (10-0-1-1) handed Edgar (13-1-1) his first and still only loss of his career, taking the fight by unanimous decision. The two had a rematch on January 1, 2011 to fight for the title that Edgar captured from BJ Penn. The rematch ended with a majority draw and Edgar retained his title.
In the first round of the rematch, Maynard dropped Edgar, “I’m thinking this is done, I’ve reached my goal,” Maynard said. However, he could not finish the champion. The final score cards read 48-46, 46-48, 47-47 for the draw.
One thing will be certain going into the title-fight rematch: These two will not be looking to let this fight go to the judges’ scorecards.
At UFC 129 last Saturday, underrated welterweight Jake Ellenberger stepped in on two weeks notice to fight Sean Pierson. Ellenberger showed that taking a fight on short notice was no problem for him, as he knocked Pierson out in the first round. He sho…
At UFC 129 last Saturday, underrated welterweight Jake Ellenberger stepped in on two weeks notice to fight Sean Pierson.
Ellenberger showed that taking a fight on short notice was no problem for him, as he knocked Pierson out in the first round. He showed how his striking has improved since his last fight as he caught Pierson with a beautiful counter left hand that ended the Canadian’s night early.
However, the punch that gained Ellenberger the victory would bring about some down time as he broke the fourth metacarpal in his left hand that required him to get surgery this week.
Ellenberger stated that the surgery went well and he should be back to training in six to eight weeks.
With the victory, Ellenberger has now won four consecutive fights over top fighters such as John Howard and Mike Pyle. Ellenberger finds himself close to breaking into the top 10 in the welterweight division and has said that he wants to fight the biggest and the best the division has to offer.
Although Ellenberger cannot immediately get back to work, according to MMAWeekly, he already knows who he wants to be his next opponent, recently defeated No. 1 contender Jake Shields.
“I would love it. I would still love that fight,” Ellenberger said about Shields. “It’s definitely up to the UFC, you know Joe (Silva) and Dana (White), what they want to do, but yeah if I could pick who I fight it would definitely be (Jake Shields).”
Shields, like Ellenberger, also fought at UFC 129, but received a different result than Ellenberger.
Shields was dominated by welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre in route to a decision loss where Shields was not able to utilize his strength, his jiu-jitsu.
GSP stuffed all of Shields take down attempts and forced the American to beat him in a stand-up brawl, which Shields could not.
Ellenberger has known to be critical of Jake Shields in the past, however, he knows that the former Strikeforce Middleweight champion is still very dangerous, which is why he wants to fight him.
“I definitely still think Shields is on that level; he’s a top guy.” he said.
“Fighting a guy like GSP, that’s a tough feat in it’s own, but Shields is still a top ten guy in the division. I’m ready, I really feel I’m ready.” Ellenberger said.
As “The Juggernaut” recovers from his recent injury, he will await the call on who his next opponent will be. Whether it is Shields, or another top welterweight, Ellenberger will be ready.
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When Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva steps into the Octagon at UFC 132 against Chris Leben on July 2, it will be the 45th professional fight of his MMA career.Recently, the former PRIDE middleweight champion took to Twitter to inform his fans that h…
When Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva steps into the Octagon at UFC 132 against Chris Leben on July 2, it will be the 45th professional fight of his MMA career.
Recently, the former PRIDE middleweight champion took to Twitter to inform his fans that he would like another 10 fights before he retires:
“I want to make more ten fights in my career. It’s amazing, when I think about it my eyes are filled with tears,” Silva tweeted.
Since joining the UFC in 2007, Silva has fought six times and granted, he had some time off due to surgeries.
Ten more fights would see the 34-year-old Silva most likely entering his 40s before he retires.
Silva also took time to thank his fans, “Thank God because for some years now I don’t need to fight for money, I do it because I’m crazy for you. My fans are my reason [for fighting].”
Silva, who has the WandFC team and his Las Vegas training facility to fall back on, seems less than eager to head into retirement:
“You have no idea how I do feel when I am inside that [the cage]. It’s unique and intense. I’ve competed my whole life, I don’t know how it’ll be afterwards,” Silva tweeted.
Silva’s career began with a victory over Dilson Filho on Nov. 1, 1996.
UFC 132 will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on July 2. The fight card will be headlined by a UFC bantamweight bout between the champion Dominick Cruz and challenger, former WEC featherweight champion, Urijah Faber.The two fighters have met be…
UFC 132 will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on July 2. The fight card will be headlined by a UFC bantamweight bout between the champion Dominick Cruz and challenger, former WEC featherweight champion, Urijah Faber.
The two fighters have met before, with Faber (25-4) defeating Cruz by first round submission. That loss, in 2007, remains the only blemish on Cruz’s record (17-1).
Since that time, the two have developed a mutual dislike for each other.
“Me and Urijah don’t really get along very much, needless to say,” Cruz told Heavy.com’s Fight Day. “It goes all the way back to the first time we fought about four years ago I’d say. I fought him at 145 pounds for the world title. I did some stuff that made him angry. He did some stuff after the fight that made me angry.”
“It just stuck in my head and just gave me a bad taste in my mouth. I never really just had a good feeling towards him since then. It just makes it that much easier to get in there and punch him in the face.”
Faber had the following to say about the animosity between the two.
“I don’t really like Cruz very much. You keep hearing about it, because everybody keeps asking about it,” Faber said in a recent UFC media call. “The bottom line is I think the guy kind of chose me as an enemy, and I accept. We fought once, and we’re going to do it again.”
The main card will also see the return of Wanderlei Silva to the Octagon. Silva, who has been rehabbing from knee surgery, has not fought since defeating Michael Bisping by unanimous decision in February of last year.
Silva will face Chris Leben on the Las Vegas card. Leben is coming off a TKO loss to Brian Stann at UFC 125.
Tito Ortiz will be facing Ryan Bader and his possible release from the UFC when he steps into the cage on July 2. UFC president Dana White has made it clear that Ortiz has run out of chances with the UFC and if he does not deliver a win in this bout he will be released from his contract. Ortiz has not won a fight since defeating Ken Shamrock in 2006.
Standing in Ortiz’s way, Bader will look to get back in the win column after suffering the first loss of his 13 fight MMA career to Jon Jones at UFC 125.
Rounding out the main card which will be shown on pay-per-view at 9:00 pm ET:
Dennis Siver vs. Matt Wiman
Carlos Condit vs. Dong Hyun Kim
Preliminary fights that have been made official:
Melvin Guillard vs. Shane Roller
Brian Bowles vs. Takeya Mizugaki
Jason “Mayhem” Miller vs. Aaron Simpson
Tickets for UFC 132 will go on sale on Saturday, May 7 at 10 a.m. PT and will be priced from $75-$800.
Bleacher Report’s John Heinis:Fighters Only recently interviewed UFC light heavyweight Rashad Evans.The main topic of discussion was one of Evans former opponents, “The Count” Michael Bisping. Evans said that Bisping is not a guy who seems that ski…
Bleacher Report’s John Heinis:
Fighters Only recently interviewed UFC light heavyweight Rashad Evans.
The main topic of discussion was one of Evans former opponents, “The Count” Michael Bisping.
Evans said that Bisping is not a guy who seems that skilled, until you enter the cage against him.
“That’s one thing I learned by fighting him. And his takedowns have gotten a lot better, I have been impressed by that—and by his transitions to those takedowns,” Evans complimented.
The former light heavyweight champion then had no problem elaborating on these comments.
“See its one thing to be able to hit a takedown—anybody at this level in MMA, we all know how to take someone down. But its the little things that make your takedown effective and one of the things is your transition from your punches to your takedown.”
For those unfamiliar, Evans won a split decision over Bisping at UFC 78 in what was widely considered a boring fight.
Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard will meet at UFC 131 on May 28. The fight will mark the third time that these two competitors have met. It will be the second time they will do battle for Edgar’s UFC lightweight title.