UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub has to fight a friend in his next bout, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to go easy on his old buddy Matt Mitrione. Schaub and Mitrione were both cast members on The Ultimate Fighter season 10 and have remained good frien…
UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub has to fight a friend in his next bout, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to go easy on his old buddy Matt Mitrione.
Schaub and Mitrione were both cast members on The Ultimate Fighter season 10 and have remained good friends since the show ended.
So when UFC matchmaker Joe Silva came calling to pair the two heavyweights together for a fight at UFC on Fox 8, both accepted the bout and promised fireworks, even though it was a tough decision to make.
“It is a business of entertainment.I love Matt, Matt knows this, I wish I could fight any other heavyweight, but you just can’t,” Schaub told Bleacher Report. “One thing I can guarantee is Matt and I will put on a show.”
In the interview, Schaub talks about his upcoming grappling superfight, the controversy surrounding his strategy to beat Lavar Johnson and an interesting note about the recent comments made by Mitrione towards transgender fighter Fallon Fox.
Schaub even offered to have Fox come train with him as he prepares for the fight against Mitrione.
“Matt’s a fan favorite too, it might have went down a little bit with his last comments (about Fallon Fox),” Schaub said.“I’m going to throw an offer to (Fallon Fox). If you want to help me get Matt Mitrione back, open invitation to come train. Help me out.”
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report
Denver, Colorado has always been a breeding ground for mixed martial arts ever since the first UFC event was held there all the way back in 1993. Since that time, a slew of great fighters have come out of the area, and some of the best and brightest fr…
Denver, Colorado has always been a breeding ground for mixed martial arts ever since the first UFC event was held there all the way back in 1993.
Since that time, a slew of great fighters have come out of the area, and some of the best and brightest from Denver are now forming together to create a new team under the coaching leadership of former Ultimate Fighter assistant Leister Bowling.
The new squad will be called the Elevation Fight Team and will be headed up by several UFC competitors, including Nate Marquardt, Brendan Schaub, Cat Zingano and Jared Hamman.
According to Bowling, the concept of this team is different than most in MMA because it really is about the fighters and not a single coach or gym looking to get ahead in the business.
“The difference is it’s not a gym, it’s a team,” Bowling told Bleacher Report on Thursday.“It’s going to be open to everybody from every gym, and in Denver, there happens to be a lot of good gyms.I think a lot of fighters get pulled in a lot of different directions.Maybe they want to train with me for wrestling, and somewhere else for boxing and somewhere else for jiu-jitsu, and maybe all of those coaches don’t get along.That just hurts the fighter.Because they’re not getting to train with the best training partners.
“So the concept of this is I run my practices out of the MusclePharm training center, they’ve kind of named me their in house MMA coach, and it came about because some people were kind of unhappy where they were and wanted to start their own team and asked me to be a part of it and asked me to run it as head coach.”
The MusclePharm facility will host the main practices for the team, but they will also branch out to other places in and around Denver, including Easton Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu headed up by retired UFC light heavyweight Eliot Marshall.The idea is for the team to be about getting the best training and coaching possible, while avoiding the politics of fighters only being able to work at one gym.
Bowling has worked with many of the core fighters for several years, and he’s excited that they are coming along with him on this new endeavor.Bowling started training Schaub when he was literally just one fight into his pro career, while he’s known Zingano since she was in high school.
The long running relationships he’s shared with the fighters and that they have shared with one another will hopefully make the new team as strong as any in the game today.
“For those guys to believe in me and trust in me to be, like, the head coach of their team and trust my decisions, it’s an honor,” Bowling said.“It’s awesome to have a group like that, that have always known each other but have been pulled in different directions in their careers.To be able to start with a group like that is awesome.”
One of the ideals Bowling is battling against with his new team is the concept that because Marquardt, Schaub and others are training with him now, that they can no longer be a part of another team, like where they previously worked at the Grudge Training Center, a popular facility in Denver headed up by coach Trevor Wittman.
For instance, Zingano will call Elevation Fight Team her home, but she will still train at Zingano Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu where her husband coaches and works.He will also be welcome to come work with the new team as well.
Bowling avoids naming names when it comes to the fighters who will no longer be working with a former coach or gym to focus on the new team, but he says Elevation Fight Team will have an open door policy for any fighter who just wants to train and get better.
“There’s a few guys out there, and I don’t want to name anybody in particular because it’s not everybody that’s going to be a part of this team necessarily wanted to leave Grudge, but there’s some people that just needed a change of atmosphere,” Bowling revealed.“They just wanted something different.They really wanted it to be a fighters first team and not really focus on anyone’s business.In my mind, as a professional MMA coach, I need to be a part of Team Schaub or Team Marquardt or Team Zingano or whoever I’m coaching at that time rather than my own business.I really think that’s what’s put me in this position—MMA’s not my livelihood, it’s my passion.
“There’s some people that will still train at Grudge and there’s some people that will probably never go back.”
Putting the fighter ahead of the gym is the key to Bowling’s plan with the new team.He believes every fighter needs to be in a business unto themselves and not get into battling over which gym they represent heading into a fight.
“This is a team.To be a team you’ve got to be a family—they’ve got to bleed together, they’ve got to be there for each other.Anytime, when you mix two businesses, you get conflict.Well, Nate Marquardt is in the Nate Marquardt business, and whatever gym he’s in is that business because they have to pay their bills, it’s their family’s livelihood,” Bowling stated.“I believe fighters need to be selfish with their career and not trying to build somebody’s business instead of your own.It can be a problem.This team is fighters first.”
Marquardt agrees with Bowling as he joins him on the new team, and hopes to keep a very positive attitude flowing at Elevation Fight Team.
“I have been around this sport for a long time. I have seen the best and worst this sport has to offer. I have always had a dream to not only train with the best guys I can, but to train in a positive atmosphere that puts the fighters first,” Marquardt said in a press release about the team’s creation. “I want to help develop that dream and turn it into a reality not only for my own career but for a lot of the younger fighters I train with on a daily basis.
“I want to be part of a team that puts the fighters first and Elevation Fight Team is going to do that. After brainstorming with my coach Leister Bowling, we decided to run with the idea. This team will be different than any team in MMA today.”
The new team is already forming and practices starting up as Schaub gets ready for his next fight, while Zingano prepares for her trip to Las Vegas to begin work on the new season of the Ultimate Fighter.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.
(John Moraga leaves Ulysses Gomez in a heap during his Octagon debut at UFC on FOX 4. Photo via Esther Lin/MMAFighting)
The UFC on FOX 8 bookings continue to pile up, with a pair of high-profile matchups announced last night by the UFC. First off, the July 27th event in Seattle now has an official main event: flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson vs. fast-rising challenger John Moraga, a matchup that was originally supposed to headline the TUF 17 Finale earlier this month before Mighty Mouse was forced to withdraw due to injury.
Johnson is coming off his first title defense in January — a unanimous decision win over John Dodson at UFC on FOX 6 — while Moraga’s two-fight stint in the UFC has produced stoppage victories over Ulysses Gomez and Chris Cariaso…and that’s pretty much all it takes to get a title-shot at 125 pounds these days. Before starting his MMA career, Moraga was a two-time All-American wrestler at Arizona State University, and he currently trains at The Lab in Phoenix alongside Benson Henderson and Jamie Varner.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the fighter-weight spectrum…
(John Moraga leaves Ulysses Gomez in a heap during his Octagon debut at UFC on FOX 4. Photo via Esther Lin/MMAFighting)
The UFC on FOX 8 bookings continue to pile up, with a pair of high-profile matchups announced last night by the UFC. First off, the July 27th event in Seattle now has an official main event: flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson vs. fast-rising challenger John Moraga, a matchup that was originally supposed to headline the TUF 17 Finale earlier this month before Mighty Mouse was forced to withdraw due to injury.
Johnson is coming off his first title defense in January — a unanimous decision win over John Dodson at UFC on FOX 6 — while Moraga’s two-fight stint in the UFC has produced stoppage victories over Ulysses Gomez and Chris Cariaso…and that’s pretty much all it takes to get a title-shot at 125 pounds these days. Before starting his MMA career, Moraga was a two-time All-American wrestler at Arizona State University, and he currently trains at The Lab in Phoenix alongside Benson Henderson and Jamie Varner.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the fighter-weight spectrum, Matt Mitrione‘s suspension for being a jackass has ended after a long, arduous 15 days. (Meanwhile, War Machine is still allowed to speak freely. What a country.) That’s right, Meathead is being allowed back from time-out to fight Brendan Schaub at the UFC on FOX 8 event. Both fighters recently snapped two-fight losing streaks, with Mitrione hipbone-KO’ing Phil De Fries in 19 seconds at UFC on FUEL 9, and Schaub playing it safe against Lavar Johnson at UFC 157. I’m not calling this one a “win or get fired” fight, but let’s just say both men need to put on a good performance here to get back on the promotion’s good side.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu — it’s so hot right now. And for fans of the so-called “Gentle Art,” Metamoris’s next tournament on June 9th will be required viewing. The promotion announced its second Pro Jiu Jitsu Invitational today, which will be headlined by highly decorated BJJ champion Kron Gracie against MMA submission expert (and new OneFC lightweight champ) Shinya Aoki. The event is slated to place at the Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, and will be available for viewing online through a live HD pay-per-view stream on Metamoris.com.
Since launching last October, Metamoris has set itself apart with marquee names from the worlds of BJJ and MMA, and a competition system that focuses only on submissions. “Jiu Jitsu tournaments have devolved, especially at the elite level, to a game based on who can score points with a sweep or dominant position in the last few seconds of a match to win,” said Metamoris founder Ralek Gracie in a press release distributed today. “I founded Metamoris to create a tournament where submissions are the only goal, not points. With the introduction of judges, we will avoid draws. Someone in a fight is always sharper. And now, the fighter who controls the bout with technique, the fighter who shows more varied and frequent submission acquisition, will get his hand raised.”
Five more bouts have already been booked for the 6/9 lineup. They are…
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu — it’s so hot right now. And for fans of the so-called “Gentle Art,” Metamoris’s next tournament on June 9th will be required viewing. The promotion announced its second Pro Jiu Jitsu Invitational today, which will be headlined by highly decorated BJJ champion Kron Gracie against MMA submission expert (and new OneFC lightweight champ) Shinya Aoki. The event is slated to place at the Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, and will be available for viewing online through a live HD pay-per-view stream on Metamoris.com.
Since launching last October, Metamoris has set itself apart with marquee names from the worlds of BJJ and MMA, and a competition system that focuses only on submissions. “Jiu Jitsu tournaments have devolved, especially at the elite level, to a game based on who can score points with a sweep or dominant position in the last few seconds of a match to win,” said Metamoris founder Ralek Gracie in a press release distributed today. “I founded Metamoris to create a tournament where submissions are the only goal, not points. With the introduction of judges, we will avoid draws. Someone in a fight is always sharper. And now, the fighter who controls the bout with technique, the fighter who shows more varied and frequent submission acquisition, will get his hand raised.”
Five more bouts have already been booked for the 6/9 lineup. They are…
– Three-time world champion and 2009 ADCC world champion Braulio Estima vs. five-time World Cup champion Rodolfo Vieria.
– 2012 World Cup gold medalist Andre Galvao vs. Rafael Lovato Jr., the second American in history to win the Brazilian National Jiu-Jitsu Championship as a black belt.
Tickets for Metamoris Pro Jiu Jitsu Invitational II go on sale April 22nd at Ticketmaster. In the meantime, check out this gnarly highlight reel from Metamoris 1.
When the UFC released 18 fighters last week with names like former welterweight title contender Jon Fitch on the list, the message was clear to all of the competitors currently under contract to the promotion. There is no tomorrow, only today. With the…
When the UFC released 18 fighters last week with names like former welterweight title contender Jon Fitch on the list, the message was clear to all of the competitors currently under contract to the promotion.
There is no tomorrow, only today.
With the influx of numerous Strikeforce fighters including an entire women’s division, plus 14 competitors from this season of the Ultimate Fighter who were all promised at least one more shot in the Octagon, UFC President Dana White said that their roster was bloated by more than 100 fighters under contract.
That means at the drop of a dime, a bad loss or just a poor performance and a fighter could be sent packing from the UFC.
Just days after the cuts were made, UFC 157 took place in Anaheim, Calif., and while there were plenty of fighters who didn’t have to worry one ounce about their job being safe or not, there were a few certainly sitting on the bubble hoping it didn’t pop.
Brendan Schaub headed into the weekend for his fight against Lavar Johnson coming off of two straight knockout losses. The former Ultimate Fighter finalist happens to be a heavyweight, one of the UFC’s shallowest weight classes, but still a third loss would have been devastating and almost certainly going down by knockout would have found him waking up on the unemployment line.
So Schaub did what he had to do to get a win by any means necessary.
Time and time again, Schaub took Johnson to the ground and while he did aggressively look for a submission finish in the first round, the rest of the fight looked like a carbon copy of the initial five minutes—Schaub with the takedown and Johnson struggling to do anything from the bottom.
The crowd in Anaheim booed relentlessly, and Schaub was panned by just about everybody on Twitter for playing it safe and grinding out a three round decision, instead of giving the fans a show on Saturday night.
“I had to win tonight,” Schaub said after the fight. “The last two fights I lost, I fought with my guts rather than my brains but tonight I needed to win this—so I used my brain. I know people were expecting a slugfest—but I’ve been working hard on my BJJ and thought I could sub him.”
During the fight, Schaub and Johnson could be seen talking to one another and after it was over, the former NFL practice squad player revealed their conversation backing up his desperate need for a victory.
“At one point he was talking to me on the ground saying “Come on, dog, let’s stand and give the fans a show” and I said “Sorry, bro, I gotta win this fight” and he said “I hear ya”,” Schaub stated.
There may not be a clearer case of the message being sent and received by a fighter in the UFC than what Schaub said in those two quotes. He didn’t want to win—he had to win—and that made all the difference in his performance.
White didn’t praise Schaub’s strategy in the fight, but he also understood why the fight went down the way it did.
“Not the fight I expected, but Schaub’s been knocked out a couple of times too and he was in there with a big puncher. He ain’t going to run in there with his chin out,” White stated after the conclusion of UFC 157. “I guarantee that was their game plan going in. Let’s take this guy down, I’m sure they hoped they’d do more damage on the ground than they did, but it didn’t work out that way.”
Prior to Schaub’s “win at all costs” performance, two featherweights battled it out on the same FX preliminary show with former Ultimate Fighter finalist Dennis Bermudez, defeating Matt Grice in a wild, three-round slugfest.
Bermudez and Grice battered each other back and forth for 15 full minutes, and the third round saw as much heart and determination as any fighter has shown in UFC history. Bermudez attacked once he saw an opening after tagging Grice with a good punch and proceeded to blast away at his opponent’s head trying to get the finish.
Grice refused to go down, and with everything he had left he fought back winging punch after punch, trying to back Bermudez off. When the final horn sounded, Bermudez and Grice were both exhausted, but had nothing to be ashamed of after leaving it all in the cage that night.
Bermeduz walked out the winner, but following the event Dana White assured Matt Grice that his performance did not only win him a $50,000 “Fight of the Night” bonus, it will absolutely keep him in the UFC for another fight.
“When these guys came back after that fight, obviously (Matt Grice) was really upset, I said that’s one of those fights that there’s no loser,” White explained at the UFC 157 post fight press conference. “There is no loser in that fight. When you turn on your TV set, or you put down your money, or you buy a ticket—that’s what you expect to show up and see! As a fight fan, those are the kinds of fights you want to watch. Those are the kind of fights guys won’t get cut. It’s pretty simple.”
Since the night ended, Grice has received continuous praise from fans and media alike for his gutsy performance while Schaub has had to listen to unrelenting criticism for “playing it safe.”
The UFC job market is a tough place right now, and both Schaub and Grice understood that going into the night. The sad truth is both did exactly what they needed to do to make sure they’d be back in the Octagon again.
The cost of doing that?
Well for Schaub it means likely being relegated to a preliminary fight for his next bout because the UFC rarely rewards a fighter who grinds out a three round decision for his following trip to the cage. The win guaranteed Schuab will be back, but does it actually put him on a shorter leash now to perform big in his next fight?
Matt Grice had to sacrifice his body to make sure he’d be back again in the UFC, and that’s obviously no small price to pay. Grice is now 1-2 in his last three fights in the UFC, and another loss would be devastating if he wants to stick around any longer than that.
Both Schaub and Grice live to fight another day, and that’s all any UFC fighter can ask for right now. There is no way to plan for two fights down the road, or a five fight master plan—it’s about right now, this moment and nothing else.
If they don’t perform today, they won’t be around tomorrow, and that performance to get a call back from matchmaker Joe Silva can come in many different ways. Brendan Schaub and Matt Grice are shining examples of that philosophy.
Damon Martin is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.
UFC 157 became a memorable night, even though the vast majority of MMA fans only tuned in to watch the evening’s main event bouts.Ronda Rousey continued to armbar her way to yet another victory, but faced some adversity along the way. Lyoto Machida was…
UFC 157 became a memorable night, even though the vast majority of MMA fans only tuned in to watch the evening’s main event bouts.
Ronda Rousey continued to armbar her way to yet another victory, but faced some adversity along the way. LyotoMachida was able to avoid Dan Henderson’s strikes as he won a close one.
Court McGee won an entertaining fight against Josh Neer, Urijah Faber notched another victory and Robbie Lawler picked up his first UFC victory since 2004.
There were a number of fighters who looked great in the Octagon, but which ones had the most impressive performances at UFC 157?
