About as shocking as the Nevada State Athletic Commission refusing to license UFC heavyweight Alistair Overeem, UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva still doesn’t find the humor in his arch rival Chael Sonnen’s antics.”When I started training marti…
“When I started training martial arts I learned about respect,” he said. “Sonnen doesn’t know martial arts. He’s a wrestler, he doesn’t know how to respect people. Some say he’s promoting the fight, but he disrespected my country, my family and fans.”
At the UFC 147 fight presser in Rio de Janeiro Brazil Tuesday morning, Sonnen made plenty of his signature wise cracks.
However, he really seemed to get under “The Spider’s” skin when he put on a pair of funny-face glasses that came equipped with fake eyebrows, a fake nose and a fake mustache.
Sonnen stated he wore the comedic get up order to sneak into Brazil and was mistaken for Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in the process.
Reports last week indicated the fight would likely be moved from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Las Vegas since Rio de Janeiro would be hosting a United Nations conference the same week as UFC 147, which is still scheduled for June 23, but will now face a venue change.
For those interested in seeing Uncle Chael’s other shenanigans from the fight presser, video footage and quotes can be found here.
Despite his constant belittling of the former Pride FC heavyweight champion, UFC president Dana White insists he does not hate Fedor Emelianenko.The Russian heavyweight was a hot commodity for the UFC boss for many years and had pursued Emelianenko on …
Despite his constant belittling of the former Pride FC heavyweight champion, UFC president Dana White insists he does not hate Fedor Emelianenko.
The Russian heavyweight was a hot commodity for the UFC boss for many years and had pursued Emelianenko on several occasions in an attempt to sign him with the company.
White made one last effort on trying to lure Emelianeko, on the notion that he would be given an immediate title shot against then-UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, but White said his management, M-1 Global, prevented the deal from happening.
“I really don’t hate Fedor. His management made the biggest (expletive) in the history of all sports,” White told MMA Interviews following UFC 145.
White explained how he travelled to meet Emelianenko and his manager, Vadim Finkelchtein, in 2009, who offered him a lot of money to sign a contract in addition to fighting Lesnar.
White said Finkelchtein rejected the offer and proceeded to laugh in his face. White was disrespected by the gesture and has since refrained from doing business with M-1 Global.
“I told Vadummy, ‘You’re one punch away from being worth zero.’ He didn’t take it. They thought they were too cool and too slick and too (expletive) funny,” he said. “Like I said, they’re not laughing now.”
Emelianenko eventually signed with Strikeforce that same year, where he would go on to defeat Brett Rogers before dropping three consecutive bouts to Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Silva and Dan Henderson.
Emelianenko is scheduled to meet former UFC heavyweight champion Pedro Rizzo in Russia on June 23.
Take this tidbit from Edgar’s interview with MMAFighting, for instance, in which he says that the drop to 145 is “inevitable”, especially if Aldo’s name comes up:
We’ll see what the future holds, but I think it’s inevitable that I’ll eventually get down there. I just don’t know when. I’m all about fighting big fights, and fighting the best guys, and Jose Aldo’s one of them. We’ll see where it’s at, whether it’s at 145 or 155.
Considering that Edgar has never even shown a slight interest in dropping to 145, that’s all the confirmation we’re going to need. Start making your picks, ’cause this shit is going down.
More from the interview awaits you after the jump.
(Don’t worry, Frankie, there will be plenty more where that came from.)
Take this tidbit from Edgar’s interview with MMAFighting, for instance, in which he says that the drop to 145 is “inevitable”, especially if Aldo’s name comes up:
We’ll see what the future holds, but I think it’s inevitable that I’ll eventually get down there. I just don’t know when. I’m all about fighting big fights, and fighting the best guys, and Jose Aldo’s one of them. We’ll see where it’s at, whether it’s at 145 or 155.
Considering that Edgar has never even shown a slight interest in dropping to 145, that’s all the confirmation we’re going to need. Start making your picks, ’cause this shit is going down.
But lo and behold, Edgar is still holding strong to his claims that a rematch Henderson will happen in the near future, stating “I was set on getting this belt back. We don’t know what the future holds, but I didn’t want to go down on those terms.” A clever ruse to make DW’s announcement seem all the more surprising? We think so. Don’t be fooled by the red herrings, Dana White is going to make Edgar an offer he can’t refuse, and Edgar is eventually going to cave beneath the almighty power of The Baldfather’s fist. We all have.
Let’s face it; the time for Edgar to make his move is now. We can debate all day about how close his fight with Henderson was and how one loss doesn’t mean he should drop a weight class and blah blah blah, but there’s no doubt that the majority of us would rather see him fight Aldo then rematch Henderson. Yes, their fight at UFC 144 was pretty awesome, but Edgar took a beating, like he has in nearly all of his fights at lightweight. For his safety alone, Edgar shouldn’t be fighting guys that outweigh him by 20 pounds come fight night just to prove a point. If “The Answer” wants his UFC career to last for as long as possible, he should start cutting to 145 and taking on guys his own size. Edgar knows it, and he told MMAFighting that so does Dana White:
[Dana] stressed that he thinks for the longevity of my career, 145 would be better. I told him I could see what points he was talking about, but right now I wanted the rematch, so he granted it.
Now there you go again with the rematch nonsense, Frankie. Look, we understand that you want your rematch, and rightfully so, but just think of what happens if your were to lose this one again. The drop to 145 would be next, now not by choice, but out of a need to save your career. And although this has worked out great for guys like Brian Stann and Tim Boetsch, it could be disastrous for you. Look at it this way; if you were to accept the Aldo fight now and lose, then the 155 pound division would still welcome you back. Write it off as a failed experiment ala Joe Warren and say that you felt weak or slow at featherweight. We’d eat it up like a crayfish dinner and still clamor that you deserve your rematch with Henderson. Despite DW’s insistence, you could call lightweight home for the time being.
Now let’s look at the other side of the coin. Say you lose to Henderson twice and then Aldo (granted you made it to a title shot unscathed), where do you go from there? Before you can even leave the arena, you’re written off as the Jon Fitch of not one, but two weight classes. You try to drop to 135 shortly thereafter, but show up over 20 pounds heavy for your debut and are subsequently released by the UFC. You take a couple fights under local promotions to get back into the big show, but unfortunately run into the next lightweight prodigy, who promptly beats your name out of existence. Desperate for the cash to support your now bloated lifestyle, you begin to pedal drugs on the street, until the day arrives that you get caught selling crack to an undercover police officer.
And when you find yourself cuffed in the backseat of the squad car next to a 350 lb man with not one, but two wallet chains and a tattoo of his mother with her eyes scratched out, you will know that you have truly hit rock bottom. All as a result of your stubbornness and pride. Take the fight with Aldo, Frankie. Take it for your own good.
So I ask unto you, Potato Nation, how do you think Edgar would fare against Aldo? And on the outside chance that Edgar won’t be the man to face Aldo at UFC 147, who would you like to pair him against for his featherweight debut? Granted, this is all dependent on whether or not Frankie is able to best Bendo in their rematch, but speculation is what we thrive in here at CP, so let’s strike while the iron’s hot. Or at least lukewarm.
UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion Jon “Bones” Jones does not yet share the same pound-for-pound title with Anderson “The Spider” Silva. Indeed, the previous toss-up between Silva and Georges St-Pierre remains MMA’s closest pa…
UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion Jon “Bones” Jones does not yet share the same pound-for-pound title with Anderson “The Spider” Silva. Indeed, the previous toss-up between Silva and Georges St-Pierre remains MMA’s closest parallel to the Papal Schism.
There is no doubt, though, that the current LH champion Jones is reaching and inching closer to the throne with his third successful title defense, seventh straight win, 16th victory in 17 fights and only one defeat best written in quotation marks.
Yes, it’s cumbersome, but let’s mention and specify again that that disqualification loss was due to illegal elbow strikes versus Matt Hamill—a lone, isolated case of the greatest-not-being-the-smartest all the time. (Greatest light-heavyweight, I mean.)
Other than that cursed “loss,” Jones has proven that he is the smartest and most skillful every single time inside The Octagon.
Now, after elbowing Rashad Evans out of the title contention picture for the moment, Jones is handed by Dana White a chance to spur the pound-for-pound debate further—by defending his belt against living legend Dan “Hendo” Henderson.
And as “MMA math” goes, if Jones defeats Henderson in a quicker and more spectacular fashion than Silva did, then he can be considered as the better fighter than The Spider.
As a reminder, Silva submitted Hendo by rear-naked choke at 4:50 of the second round of their UFC 82 main event in 2008.
But if Hendo lasts longer against Jones—especially for five full rounds like Evans—even if he loses, then Bones will be judged as inferior to Silva.
Worse if Hendo wins, as MMA math is ultimately predicated on the following equation: If X (Silva) beats Y (Hendo), and Y beats Z (Jones), then X is better than Z.
Well, MMA math may not be absolutely valid in comparing one fighter with another, but it’s not entirely without merit in analyzing hypothetical matchups.
Resorting to it will never prove as decisive as the Council of Constance, but in the absence of an actual match between two great fighters in question, at least it provides a parameter for comparison.
MMA math is just one of many theoretical frameworks.
Besides, give some credit to them MMA mathematicians; after all, not everyone’s good in math.
On Tuesday morning, Dana White, Chael Sonnen and the middleweight champion Anderson Silva were all in Brazil for a press conference about UFC 147.But the biggest news from the press conference was something that had been rumored for about two week…
On Tuesday morning, Dana White, Chael Sonnen and the middleweight champion Anderson Silva were all in Brazil for a press conference about UFC 147.
But the biggest news from the press conference was something that had been rumored for about two weeks now: the necessity to move the fight from Brazil to Las Vegas due to scheduling conflicts.
However, there was more than just that news to come out of the presser, so let’s take a look at all the stories from the UFC 147 press conference in Brazil.
Alistair Overeem made his UFC debut by completely dominating Brock Lesnar at UFC 141. It was such a one-sided performance that Lesnar retired from MMA immediately afterwards. With the victory, Overeem was awarded a shot against Junior Dos Santos. …
Alistair Overeem made his UFC debut by completely dominating Brock Lesnar at UFC 141. It was such a one-sided performance that Lesnar retired from MMA immediately afterwards. With the victory, Overeem was awarded a shot against Junior Dos Santos.
The title fight was scheduled to take place at UFC 146 in Las Vegas and would headline a main card comprised entirely of heavyweight fights. The UFC held a press conference in Las Vegas to hype up this mega card in early April with Alistair Overeem, Junior Dos Santos, Cain Velasquez, Frank Mir, Roy Nelson, and Antonio Silva in attendance.
Following the presser, the Nevada State Athletic Commission randomly tested all six fighters. Of the six tests, only Overeem’s came back positive for elevated levels of testosterone. Unfortunately for Alistair, the random test was part of his agreement he made with the commission when they granted him a temporary license for the Lesnar fight.
Today at 12:00 PM ET/9:00 AM PT, Overeem will meet with NSAC in the hope that he can get a license in the state. If the commission fails to grant him a license, the UFC has gone on record that they would respect the decision and not have Overeem fight elsewhere.
Join Bleacher Report for live updates from the NSAC hearing for Alistair Overeem.
UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion Jon “Bones” Jones does not yet share the same pound-for-pound title with Anderson “The Spider” Silva. Indeed, the previous toss-up between Silva and Georges St-Pierre remains