Rampage vs. Jones
With his win over Matt Hamill in the main event of UFC 130, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson has seemingly put himself in line for another chance to hold the UFC light heavyweight belt.
The problem, however, is that Jackson has an injured right hand.
“He’s one of the top two or three in the world,” UFC President Dana White said about Jackson. “If Rampage is ok, it will be with (Jon) Jones. We have to get Rampage looked at by a doctor.”
The former champion said the injury occurred late last year.
“I didn’t want to tell nobody about it,” Jackson said. “I hurt my hand in Japan in December drinking and messing around on a friend. The doctor said it was fractured, but I said “kiss my *ss, I’m fighting.”
Should Jackson not be able to make the fight, White has a back-up plan.
“If Rampage can’t go, we’d either do Machida since he’s ready to go or have Jones wait for Rashad (Evans),” White said. “Rashad is 100% sure he’s going to win this fight (against Phil Davis), and he wants to turn right around and fight Jones.”
Over the past few years, Evans and Jackson have had their issues with one another. The two are still not the best of friends.
“No, not at all,” Jackson said, when asked if he was surprised about the issues between Evans and Jones. “I figure anyone that knows Rashad is gonna have a feud.”
Fedor vs. Henderson is official
The long discussed attraction pitting two of the most accomplished MMA fighters in history is finally set to take place.
Former Pride heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko will take on Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Dan Henderson. Henderson is also the former Pride middleweight and light heavyweight champion.
The bout will take place July 30th on Showtime. Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker confirmed that the match-up would be fought at a catchweight of 220 lbs.
“Dan told me, ‘I’ll fight him at any weight. I’ve always wanted to fight him. I think I can beat him,’” Coker said. “Then, the managers get involved, and they set the weight.”
After Emelianenko lost to Antonio “Big Foot” Silva, there was discussion that Emelianenko should drop to light heavyweight. Coker never had those talks with M-1.
“We didn’t ask him that (to drop to 205),” Coker said. “Fedor’s a heavyweight. They (Fedor’s management) made that clear to me.”
The non-title affair will emanate from the Sears Center in Chicago, IL.
Big Country could need a new home
UFC President Dana White was very disappointed in the performance of heavyweight Roy Nelson in his decision loss to Frank Mir.
“I thought Roy looked terrible tonight,” White said. “I thought it was embarrassing. It was a sloppy, ugly heavyweight fight.”
When asked if Nelson was finished with the company, White was very non-committal.
“I don’t know,” White said. “I have a meeting with Roy next Friday, and we’ll see what happens. I am not happy with the performance.”
The Next Story
After taking a close decision win victory over highly ranked Thiago Alves, Ricky Story wasted little time calling out his next opponent.
“Me and my coach Pat White were discussing this,” Story said, “and the guy we want is Jon Fitch – since he should be next in line.”
Story believes he would fare well against the perennial top contender.
“I think that fight would be a good fight,” Story said. “My former teammate Mike Pierce had a close fight with him. I have all the confidence in the world going into that fight.”
“I think it should be like this one with Thiago Alves.”
In the build-up to the Alves fight, Story became well-known to the entire UFC audience. He was one of the feature fighters on the UFC 130 countdown show.
“I think the countdown show was pretty awesome,” Story said, “I didn’t expect to get that much time. That’s the point they were trying to drive home-that I belong in the fight.”
White believes the hype.
“I really like this kid,” White said. “He fought a great fight.”
Strikeforce television update
Recently, the UFC has expanded coverage of its live fights by broadcasting preliminary fights on both Spike TV and Facebook.
Now, Strikeforce is following in UFC’s path. The preliminary fights from the June 18 show will be shown live on HDNet.
The broadcast will feature two top contender battles in the lightweight division. In one fight KJ Noons will take on Jorge Masvidal, and in the other fight, Justin Wilcox will take on Gesias (J.Z.) Calvacante.
“After those fights, the deck gets reshuffled,” Coker said, “and we’ll determine then who fights Gilbert Melendez.”
Along with the lightweight bouts, Strikeforce will also show three other undercard fights. In total, there will be five preliminary fights televised in the two-hour block.
Walker “itching” to return
Former NFL running back turned MMA fighter Herschel Walker has been inactive since a January 29 victory over Scott Carson.
At that time, Walker was non-committal about taking another bout.
Now, Strikeforce President Scott Coker believes Walker, at age 49, wants to get back into the cage.
“He doesn’t have a fight scheduled, but he’s getting the itch,” Coker said. “He’s quite an amazing athlete. We’ll do it when he’s ready.”
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After learning he would be forced off UFC 130, UFC lightweight-champion Frankie Edgar has been recovering properly in order to prepare for a third encounter against challenger Gray Maynard later this year.