The UFC will go to San Jose for the first time on Nov. 19, and they are bringing a star-studded card headlined by a light heavyweight bout between former UFC champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and former Strikeforce champion Dan Henderson.Henderson re…
The UFC will go to San Jose for the first time on Nov. 19, and they are bringing a star-studded card headlined by a light heavyweight bout between former UFC champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and former Strikeforce champion Dan Henderson.
Henderson returns to the UFC for the first time since his knockout of the year against Michael Bisping. He has gone 3-1 since that 2009 victory with victories over Fedor Emelianenko, Renato Sobral and Rafael Cavalcante.
In the co-main event, Wanderlei Silva and Cung Le look to trade heavy leather in their anticipated middleweight bout.
Also on the card, bantamweights Urijah Faber and Brian Bowles will fight as well as welterweights Martin Kampmann and Rick Story.
These are early betting odds and predictions for the main card bouts.
Filed under: UFCNow that “King” Mo Lawal is just a few months away from the end of his Strikeforce contract, he’s begun to eye a future in the UFC and a potential opponent to start things off against.
Not surprisingly, that opponent is Quinton “Rampa…
Now that “King” Mo Lawal is just a few months away from the end of his Strikeforce contract, he’s begun to eye a future in the UFC and a potential opponent to start things off against.
Not surprisingly, that opponent is Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who enjoys poking fun at the man he calls “King Ho” in interviews, recently telling our own Ariel Helwani, “I’ll fight that chump.”
Lawal had it out with Jackson in a heated conversation captured on video two years ago, and the two have chipped away at each other several times since in interviews and over Twitter. Now Lawal says he’d like to meet Jackson at the UFC’s event in Japan this February, when his Strikeforce contract is conveniently set to expire, but Jackson seems less thrilled about the prospect, according to Lawal.
“This fool Rampage calls me out, and then people get mad when I respond? He’s a b—h in my eyes, because he didn’t respond. Maybe he’ll respond later, but the word is he wants to fight [Mauricio] ‘Shogun’ [Rua]. That’s whatever. But he called me out, so I’m going to respond,” Lawal told MMA Fighting.
As Lawal pointed out, Rua already has a fight scheduled with Dan Henderson for November. If Jackson really wants to fight in front of the Japanese fans when the UFC heads to Tokyo, he could do a lot worse than to take on Lawal, who also has a strong following across the Pacific.
But, Lawal insisted, he wouldn’t even be setting his sights on Jackson if the former UFC champ hadn’t taken a shot at him in a recent interview.
“When’s the last time you heard me mention Rampage’s name before he mentioned mine?” said Lawal. “I don’t care about him. He wasn’t even on my radar. But now, he wants to say something about me, he’s on my radar now. We’re going to bang eventually.”
As for whether it will happen in Japan, and whether Lawal’s next fight will really be in the UFC rather than Strikeforce, he admitted he had “no idea.”
“Who knows? We’ll see. My contract is up in February. …I’d like to fight, but I have no idea.”
When you sit atop the mountain, not just the divisional mountain of mixed martial arts, but the whole damn thing, you are bound to draw the jealousy and undivided attention of more than a few critics and potential opponents.Potential opponents meaning …
When you sit atop the mountain, not just the divisional mountain of mixed martial arts, but the whole damn thing, you are bound to draw the jealousy and undivided attention of more than a few critics and potential opponents.
Potential opponents meaning those you have yet to face, as well as those you have already laid to waste wanting another chance. There will always be guys who wish it was still ’82. They know with a second chance if Dana White would put them in, there is no doubt in their mind they would take state.
When your name is Anderson Silva, being the greatest active fighter in the sport pound-for-pound, not to mention one of the best ever, criticism and jealousy is par for the course.
Nowhere was that more apparent lately than this past weekend at UFC 136 after Chael Sonnen put on a stellar performance over a lethal Brian Stann to become the man many consider the favorite to challenge Anderson Silva next for his title. Unless you live under a rock on Mars you know this is Sonnen’s second quest towards the UFC middleweight strap.
Sonnen laid down the gauntlet telling the world and “The Spider” alike, “Anderson Silva…YOU SUCK!” He proceeded to call out Silva, stating if Sonnen won Silva would leave the division, and if Silva won that Sonnen would leave the UFC forever.
As is to be expected with Sonnen, the buck certainly did not stop there, with him later going on to directly insult not just the fighter he wishes to face but his family as well, specifically Silva’s wife. This has created quite a buzz in the MMA community and drawn the fire of Anderson Silva’s manager Ed Soares.
Soares sat down with Todd Jackson of Hurtsbad MMA and went into detail about both his respect for Sonnen, and frustration with Sonnen’s coloring outside the lines when it comes to fight promotion.
Soares first talked about his thoughts on Sonnen’s relentless trash talk and the difference between promotion and disrespect.
The Black House manager explained, “I don’t know if people listen to what he says, they hear it, but I don’t know if they listen. Hey man, he has a mouth, he has a right to say what he can, he has that right to say what he wants to say.”
Soares discussed the line he feels Sonnen crossed. “I find some of the things, whether he is marketing a fight or not, I feel some of the things he says are disrespectful. You shouldn’t go and talk about other people’s families. If you want to talk about Anderson, talk trash about his training, his coaches, talk trash about me, that’s fine.”
According to Soares that’s where the leeway ends. “But when you start talking about slapping his wife on the ass and having her cook him a steak, I just find that disrespectful.”
Even as classless as he sees the comments, he was sure to explain this is business. “I really don’t think Chael Sonnen is a bad guy. He has always been real respectful to me. Once in awhile in he tends to talk a little trash. But I really don’t take that too seriously. But I just think he starts crossing the line when he talks about his Anderson Silva’s wife.”
“Insulting an individual when it pertains to that individual, that can help promote a fight.” Soares said, “But I don’t see where he should be talking about Anderson’s wife or Anderson’s kids. Which he didn’t talk about his kids but who knows, maybe that is next. There are no boundaries with Chael.”
When asked if he sees this as a tactic on Chael’s part to ride Silva’s momentum, Soares decisively stated, “I can guarantee you that. Who ever listened to a word Chael Sonnen had to say before the Silva fight? The only reason he talks about Anderson Silva is because that is the only time people will pay any attention to what he has to say. When he doesn’t talk about Silva no one will listen.”
Soares added, “He has figured out that by talking about Anderson Silva that people are going to hear what he has to say. That is his only vehicle really. Other than talking trash, he never really has too many interesting things to say.”
Sonnen calling out Silva in such a Sonnenesque brash and in your face style did not surprise many analysts or fans. He clearly feels that regardless of a loss to Silva, and his questionable testing issues, that he is the rightful heir to the number one contender’s position in the UFC middleweight division, if not the throne itself.
Does Ed Soares agree? “I don’t. I mean he had an incredible performance against Brian Stann. But what you have to ask yourself is, Chael Sonnen was in his most dominant position over Silva for four and a half rounds. What happened?”
“If you can’t finish someone after four and a half rounds and you’re in your most dominant position, you deserve to lose as far as I’m concerned.” Soares stated. “Let Anderson be in his most dominant position for half a round, and I guarantee you you’re going to get finished.”
Sonnen may be the number one topic on the Anderson Silva hype train but there is also the return to the UFC of Dan Henderson. The first UFC fighter to ever pose even an ounce of trouble for Silva before he went on to lose by submission to the pound-for-pound king.
When asked if a fight with Hendo was also on the radar or a concern aside from Sonnen, Soares lit up and emphatically explained why Anderson Silva is worried about nothing more than Anderson Silva. The question clearly struck a nerve.
“To be honest, Anderson Silva is not worried about anything! Anderson is not ducking anybody! It’s funny, guys get their ass kicked by Anderson Silva and all of a sudden they want another shot. And when he feels they don’t deserve it, now he’s ducking them. Ducking them, how could he be ducking them?”
He spoke directly to the men who feel they deserve another shot at that which has already eluded them. ‘Listen, Dan Henderson, you were tapping out at the end of the second round. Chael Sonnen, you had a great performance but guess what? You tapped out at the end of the fifth round. The bottom line is you can say what you want about giving you another shot.'”
To hear Soares tell it, they don’t prefer any particular fighter, their fate is in the hands of the UFC brass. “When Dana White and the UFC want to make that fight happen, we will make that fight happen. We don’t pick our fights. We don’t ever tell the UFC we want to fight this guy or we want to fight that guy. None of our guys have ever chosen any of our fights. The UFC picks them and whatever they say, we take it.”
Soares clearly takes issues with the some of the criticism that is directed at his champion. “That kind of stuff irritates me when they say we are trying to hand pick guys for Anderson. Anderson Silva has fought every top middleweight in the world for the past five years and beaten them. Then he moved up to light heavyweight and knocked guys out in the first round.”
In closing he made the clearest statement he could make regarding the man who draws so much fire for his perceived faults when quite clearly it is his success that truly attracts the attention.
“Anderson has had fourteen fights in the UFC and only two have gone to decision. So I think people are just crazy saying that stuff.”
Enough said, end of discussion, es todo. When you put it like that, it is hard to argue with any rational sense of the truth.
Dan Henderson is one of the few Mixed Martial Artists who can still bring out a full A-Game despite being considered “old school” in age. But with the fact of him not having posted up that many losses as late—and his highlight reel of…
Dan Henderson is one of the few Mixed Martial Artists who can still bring out a full A-Game despite being considered “old school” in age. But with the fact of him not having posted up that many losses as late—and his highlight reel of knockouts—the most difficult thing to believe with Henderson is that he is anywhere close to peaking or peaked.
Henderson’s ability to fight past the prime he hasn’t even hit yet is reason enough why I must question myself for asking what I am about to ask. How much fight does Henderson have left in his tank coming into his UFC 139 bout with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, who is not even in his thirties yet?
I have a theory for most things—the most common theory relating to why people pick fighters to win even though they don’t like them—and I also have a theory as to why someone would honestly ask this question.
It really has nothing to do with how much fight Henderson has left in him, because everyone and their mothers that resemble Jayden Jaymes in a ring girl outfit all know that Henderson will give you a fight if you pay to see a fight, whether he wins or loses.
In other words, Henderson has enough fight left in him to put Shogun away before the fight hits Round 3, and some are entitled to the opinion that Henderson has the ability to sonic-boom any chin despite his age, but that’s just it.
It’s not the pattern Shogun more-or-less created in his UFC run of losing one upset, then posting up a two-fight win streak before dropping one and winning another before restarting it all over again. Because if any man can put Shogun out, frozen cold without any question of rust or injury (apart from a shook jaw), it’s Henderson.
The reason people question how much fight he has left is because in fight years, 40 means “they should stick to training guys,” and that’s probably one of the top five most asinine things that I’ve ever heard in this sport.
Henderson will always have much to offer the sport, but whether you like the guy or not, you can’t act like Henderson has nothing left.
He has more left in his tank than anyone else would want you to believe, and that’s why I bludgeon this ridiculous question in itself. In doing so with an arguable, educated answer, I also let any doubters of Henderson realize that this is not a fight that Shogun cannot lose, despite his patterns.
He got back on a roll against Forrest Griffin in Rio at UFC 134—arguably one of the best cards of this year—but what’s stopping Henderson from laying Shogun out for 25 seconds?
Maybe it’s me underestimating Shogun or maybe I’m over-hyping Henderson.
Then again, maybe it’s because it’s not November 19th yet, so we still don’t know for sure about Henderson.
After all, we never know what’s going to happen in a fight before fight night, now do we?
UFC president Dana White has a lot going on with the impending UFC 136 fight card about to happen and the UFC fan expo happening in Houston.After UFC 136, White has to start thinking about a lot of things inside his promotions divisions. The lightweigh…
UFC president Dana White has a lot going on with the impending UFC 136 fight card about to happen and the UFC fan expo happening in Houston.
After UFC 136, White has to start thinking about a lot of things inside his promotions divisions. The lightweight division will have a true champion come Sunday, and the middleweight division might have its No. 1 contender.
But who deserves it more, the winner of Chael Sonnen and Brian Stann or Dan Henderson?
“We’ve got to see what happens here,” White told the media after the UFC 136 pre-fight press conference. “The winner of [Sonnen-Stann] deserves a shot at Anderson Silva? It’d be tough to say no. But if Henderson beats Shogun, it’d be tough to say that Henderson doesn’t deserve the shot either. So we’ll see what happens.”
UFC 139 will be Henderson’s return to the UFC after a short year long stint with Strikeforce. Henderson has knocked out the last three fighters he’s faced, including Renato Sobral, Rafael Cavalcante and Fedro Emelianenko.
Henderson has also won six of his last seven fights since Silva beat him at UFC 82. If Sonnen were to beat Stann, it would be in his first fight since his loss to Silva in August of 2010.
On the other hand, if Stann were to beat Sonnen, then Stann would be on a four-fight win streak, all of which have come at the middleweight level. Stann dropped down from light heavyweight for good after a loss to Phil Davis at UFC 109.
But as for now, Silva is on the shelf with an injury.
“He has bursitis in his shoulder,” White said. “The doctor told him he needs to rest it for eight weeks, and he’s doing physical therapy. It’s not like he’s got some injury that needs surgery or anything like that. As amazing as this guy is, we forget this guy is 37 years old.”
Gray Maynard calls out Jon Jones by saying Rashad Evans will win “For sure! ‘Cause he’s gonna hit him and Jon Jones doesn’t like that.” Quinton “Rampage” Jackson suggests to compete in a charity boxing.
Gray Maynardcalls out Jon Jones by saying Rashad Evans will win “For sure! ‘Cause he’s gonna hit him and Jon Jones doesn’t like that.”
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson suggests to compete in a charity boxing match against Lakers basket ball player, Metta World Peace (Ron Artest) via Twitter.
UFC 140: Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evansmay or may not be scheduled.
Now that “King” 
