Lesnar vs. Velasquez Set for October 23rd in Anaheim + More UFC Booking News

(They don’t like smiling. Put that in your little notebook.)
Dana White confirmed with MMAFighting.com over the weekend that Brock Lesnar’s expected title defense against Cain Velasquez will come at UFC 121, slated for October 23rd at the Honda …


(They don’t like smiling. Put that in your little notebook.)

Dana White confirmed with MMAFighting.com over the weekend that Brock Lesnar‘s expected title defense against Cain Velasquez will come at UFC 121, slated for October 23rd at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The meeting will come nearly four months after Lesnar’s comeback submission win over Shane Carwin at UFC 116, and eight months after Velasquez stormed through Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 110.

Though betting odds for the fight opened with Lesnar as a minor favorite (-125 to Cain’s -105), Lesnar has already moved as high as -160, due to money flooding in on the champ. At this point, the only other matchup reported for UFC 121 is a lightweight scrap between Sam Stout and Paul Taylor. In other booking news…

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Bobby Lashley Defends His MMA Career, but Where is It Headed?

Filed under: Strikeforce

If Brock Lesnar is a pro wrestling-to-MMA success story, Bobby Lashley still remains something of a cautionary tale. After almost two years in MMA, he still has yet to face a high-quality opponent, and yet here is in this prev…

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If Brock Lesnar is a pro wrestling-to-MMA success story, Bobby Lashley still remains something of a cautionary tale. After almost two years in MMA, he still has yet to face a high-quality opponent, and yet here is in this preview clip from tonight’s episode of “Inside MMA,” talking about how much he’d like to fight Fedor Emelianenko.

It’s tough to know exactly what to make of Lashley’s defense of his MMA career thus far. On one hand, he makes some decent points. He’s still fairly new to the sport, so why should he be ridiculed for not jumping in the cage against experienced veterans right away?

At the same time, because of his pro wrestling fame Lashley is pulling in far bigger paychecks than most 5-0 fighters will ever see. Eventually it would seem as though he has to justify that by fighting someone who actually matters.

Twitter Mailbag: Answers to All Your 140-Character or Less Queries

Filed under: UFC, StrikeforceYou people sure have a lot of questions – especially about who would win in a fight between Brock Lesnar, Alistair Overeem, and Fedor Emelianenko. Naturally, a lot would depend on whether Don Frye is the special guest refer…

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You people sure have a lot of questions – especially about who would win in a fight between Brock Lesnar, Alistair Overeem, and Fedor Emelianenko. Naturally, a lot would depend on whether Don Frye is the special guest referee, but let’s not get into that right now.

It’s been a while since my last mailbag column and there’s a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get after it. Who’s first?

@ChampBossley can you think of any scenario where james toney can impact mma in a positive way (besides losing)?

Ref Josh Rosenthal Explains Why He Didn’t Stop Lesnar-Carwin

Filed under: UFCIn the days since Brock Lesnar came back from being absolutely brutalized in the first round of his fight with Shane Carwin to winning the fight in the second, some have questioned whether referee Josh Rosenthal should have ever permitt…

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In the days since Brock Lesnar came back from being absolutely brutalized in the first round of his fight with Shane Carwin to winning the fight in the second, some have questioned whether referee Josh Rosenthal should have ever permitted the fight to get out of the first round, or whether Rosenthal should have stopped the fight and given Carwin a first-round technical knockout win.

I think Rosenthal made the right call, and his explanation of his own work in the fight pretty well demonstrates that he did what referees are supposed to do in such situations: He made sure the fighter was intelligently defending himself and allowed the fight to continue.

Shane Carwin Blames Referee Josh Rosenthal for Setting Off Chain of Events that Led to Loss to Brock Lesnar

(Rosenthal, WTF? You made me dump my adrenaline with your sweet talk.)
When Shane Carwin went from the being on the brink of dominantly beating UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar in the first round of their title tilt last Saturday night to feebly su…


(Rosenthal, WTF? You made me dump my adrenaline with your sweet talk.)

When Shane Carwin went from the being on the brink of dominantly beating UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar in the first round of their title tilt last Saturday night to feebly succumbing to an arm triangle choke in the second frame, many people were left wondering,"What the hell happened?"

Carwin, who originally claimed that his body locked up as a result of lactic acidosis, now says that his lack of energy to finish Lesnar was a result of a massive adrenaline dump, caused by the instruction of referee Josh Rosenthal

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Nogueira vs. Mir Rematch to Main Event UFC 119, Little Nog vs. Bader in Co-Main

Filed under: UFC, FanHouse Exclusive, NewsWith UFC 119 on the hunt for star power, it’s the Nogueira brothers to the rescue.

MMA legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira gets his long-awaited rematch with Frank Mir in the main event of UFC 119, MMA Fighting ha…

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With UFC 119 on the hunt for star power, it’s the Nogueira brothers to the rescue.

MMA legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira gets his long-awaited rematch with Frank Mir in the main event of UFC 119, MMA Fighting has learned.

UFC President Dana White has confirmed the matchup to MMA Fighting.