The American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California is home to some of the best mixed martial artists in the world including UFC champions Luke Rockhold and Daniel Cormier, former champion Cain Velasquez, and top contender Khabib Nurmagomedov. The success of the team inside of the cage speaks for itself, but AKA has also garnered
The American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California is home to some of the best mixed martial artists in the world including UFC champions Luke Rockhold and Daniel Cormier, former champion Cain Velasquez, and top contender Khabib Nurmagomedov.
The success of the team inside of the cage speaks for itself, but AKA has also garnered its fair share of criticisms due to its somewhat questionable injury history.
Velasquez and Nurmagomedov have been plagued with injuries over the last few years, and Cormier also recently pulled out of a highly anticipated title fight to due to an injury suffered in training.
While many have fired shots at the team, and more specifically at Velasquez, Rockhold recently spoke on the situation, saying that injuries happen in MMA, and that nothing is intentional:
“Injuries happen, we have a high level of competition at the gym,” said Rockhold in a recent interview with MMA Fighting. “But we’re family and people aren’t trying to hurt each other. From time to time, things happen. I don’t believe we have a big problem with injuries. I know myself, I know DC, I know a lot of these guys and a couple injuries plague you, but the rest of us have been pretty healthy.”
Continuing on, the reigning 185-pound champion said that AKA is simply the best camp in the world with the best fighters pushing each other to their limits:
“Cain gets some injuries, but people are fighting,” added Rockhold. “We just come from the top camp in the world with a lot of top names and there’s a lot of focus. Any time anyone gets hurt, people want to point the finger. But the thing is, we have the best camp in the world and there’s a reason why that’s happening.”
Do you agree with Rockhold, or does AKA seriously have to consider their training methods?
Ever since the heated few weeks preceding Jon “Bones” Jones and Daniel “DC” Cormier’s first championship tussle at UFC 182, there has been an impassioned debate over just who is the better mixed martial artist. Jones’ decisive victory, his eighth consecutive light heavyweight title defense, appeared to be enough to put the final nail in the
Ever since the heated few weeks preceding Jon “Bones” Jones and Daniel “DC” Cormier’s first championship tussle at UFC 182, there has been an impassioned debate over just who is the better mixed martial artist. Jones’ decisive victory, his eighth consecutive light heavyweight title defense, appeared to be enough to put the final nail in the proverbial coffin of that fervent argument.
However, after numerous slip-ups outside of the cage by “Bones” and two very imposing performances by Cormier in the former champ’s absence, the debate over whom is the superior fighter slowly crept back towards a state of equilibrium.
The dispute carried on for months, with each man happily providing his two cents as to why he is the better fighter, and it all came to a sort of culmination last weekend (Sat., April 23, 2016) at UFC 197, when Jone’s fought Ovince St. Preux for the interim light heavyweight strap. Admittedly, Jones looked more mortal than he normally does in the Octagon, but he still managed to turn in a dominant five-round performance against “OSP” to secure the inherently meaningless interim title.
Though victorious, “Bones’” surprisingly ordinary performance did not go unnoticed by Cormier, who was sitting (and commentating) ringside during the main event bout.
According to “DC”, Jones’ ring rust was quite apparent, and he even went as far as to say that had he faced Jones that night, he was utterly confident that he would have sent Jones home shouldering the burden of his first legitimate pro loss, and that Jones was ‘lucky’ that he instead fought “OSP.” He was so confident that what we all witnessed was the “new Jon” that he said their newly scheduled bout at UFC 200 would be ‘light work’.
Right on cue, as expected, Jones fired back with his now-routine responses, attacking “DC’s” wrestling skills and his inability to ’embrace the grind’ in the championship rounds. But what was far more surprising was the fact that Jone’s head coach Greg Jackson, a generally reserved and seldom publicly vocal personality, voiced his own opinion in defense of Jones from Cormier’s quips.
“Jon’s one of those guys that fights to the level of his competition. When the going gets tough, he gets going for sure. I’m very confident he would have won that night because he would step up to that [Cormier’s] level. He’s one of those guys if you push him really hard he will push back…For me, we’d done so much work for Daniel, I think he still would have won that night. If you push him hard, that almost wakes him up.”
Not the most vehement of retorts, no, but that’s not really Jackson’s style. He tends to take the high (and silent) road and leave the coach-versus-fighter banter up to gentlemen like John Kavanagh and Rafael Cordeiro.
Nonetheless, if this is just a minute glimpse into the tornado before the storm that’s coming in the build-up leading to the main event at UFC 200, it’s safe to say that we’re in for quite an entertaining ride.
“Daniel, shut up, p*ssy boy.” That’s just one of many colorful and prodding quotes from this week’s episode of Embedded: UFC 200. The second installment of the vlog series follows the top main card fighters from the upcoming blockbuster event as they make their way through the arduous media tour, making stops at “Good Morning
That’s just one of many colorful and prodding quotes from this week’s episode of Embedded: UFC 200.
The second installment of the vlog series follows the top main card fighters from the upcoming blockbuster event as they make their way through the arduous media tour, making stops at “Good Morning America” and a UFC press conference in the Big Apple.
The video features behind-the-scenes footage of the fighters preparing for media events, bickering back-and–forth, and throwing out their opening gambits for the inevitable pre-fight mental warfare that each set of combatants will obligingly take part in.
Check out the second episode of the official vlog series here:
The UFC 200 press conference was in full swing this week, moving ahead without featherweight champion Conor McGregor and his welterweight rival Nate Diaz. Instead, we were reintroduced to the ever seething feud between current light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier and his predecessor Jon Jones. It was just yesterday (Wednesday April 27, 2016) that the UFC
The UFC 200 press conference was in full swing this week, moving ahead without featherweight champion Conor McGregor and his welterweight rival Nate Diaz. Instead, we were reintroduced to the ever seething feud between current light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier and his predecessor Jon Jones. It was just yesterday (Wednesday April 27, 2016) that the UFC took over ‘Good Morning America’ on ABC for a bizarre and somewhat awkward half hour segment. Their intention was to announce the UFC 200 main event between ‘DC’ and ‘Bones,’ but in typical fashion as of late, the news was leaked a good half hour before the promotion had intended.
The press conference held later that afternoon may have paled in comparison to live stream viewers to the Diaz/McGregor Youtube hit (220K to 33K to be precise) but it was nonetheless a highly entertaining peak at the next milestone pay-per-view.
The highlight of the UFC 200 press conference was without doubt the beef between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones. The two rivals always find it hard to hide their feelings, and it always leads to some classic viewing. In this case, the fired up New York crowd actually added in a big part to the madness, as one fan asked Jones if his crack dealer would be present at UFC 200. Watch the video starting at the 29:55 mark to see the awkwardness:
Wow, talk about cringe worthy. So what else was good at the eventful UFC 200 presser? Thanks to the UFC’s official Yotube channel once again, we’ve got some diamond moments from the stacked presser to look at. Possibly the most rib tickling section was when Jones jumped up and demonstrated how he made ‘DC’ his ‘bitch’ when they fought the first time at UFC 182 last January.
Also noteworthy was Cormier’s best ‘stats Nazi’ impression, Miesha Tate just being generally awesome, and Amanda Nunes doing her best to get some trash talk going.
The UFC announced on Wednesday that Daniel Cormier will defend his light heavyweight title against current interim light heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 200. This bout will serve as the main event, which makes sense now that Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz 2 is off of the card. Jones – Cormier has hype and
The UFC announced on Wednesday that Daniel Cormier will defend his light heavyweight title against current interim light heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 200. This bout will serve as the main event, which makes sense now that Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz 2 is off of the card. Jones – Cormier has hype and should be a good fight, so this replacement fight should not be criticized by most MMA fans.
Jones (22-1) is currently on a 13-fight winning streak while Cormier (17-1) is currently on a two-fight winning streak. In his last six bouts, he’s 5-1.
When they first met, which was at UFC 182, Jones opened as an approximate -170 (1.59) favorite and eventually closed at -240 (1.42).
Jones was the stronger fighter when they fought and won the fight by decision, so can you image how Jones would do against Cormier when they fight again?
Jones is a -300 (1.33) favorite at most books, according to bestfightodds.com. Cormier is a +245 (3.45) underdog. If you placed a $100 bet on Jones and Jones won then you would net you $33.33 in profit. A winning bet on Cormier would result in a $245 profit.
Keep in mind that Jones hasn’t opened or closed as an underdog in a UFC fight since 2009, which was against Stephan Bonnar.
UFC 200 takes place at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 9, 2016. The main card will air on PPV while the prelims air on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.
After months of speculation and a week’s worth of utter chaos, UFC 200 finally got its main event on Wednesday and—hold on—let me make sure I have all this right…
Jon Jones is in, crashing the party at the last minute (no pun i…
After months of speculation and a week’s worth of utter chaos, UFC 200 finally got its main event on Wednesday and—hold on—let me make sure I have all this right…
Jon Jones is in, crashing the party at the last minute (no pun intended) to save the fight company from its own stubbornness with his much-ballyhooed rematch against Daniel Cormier for the disputed light heavyweight title.
Conor McGregor is out, after being unable to come to an agreement with the UFC on how many press conferences he would attend.
Also, Cormier is apparently the bad guy in all this. So, that’s going to take some getting used to.
Hold up, though, where’s Nate Diaz? Oh, he’s “on vacation” after refusing to make nice with his bosses and accept a fight with anyone besides McGregor? Cool. I’m glad some things never change:
The rest of this stuff is all sort of difficult to wrap my mind around.
Granted, the announcement that the Jones-Cormier rematch would serve as UFC 200’s new headliner on July 9 isn’t that surprising on its own. After Jones coasted past Ovince Saint Preux last weekend and it became clear the UFC wasn’t going to budge on its lockout of McGregor, there weren’t a ton of good alternatives.
You have to admit, though, it represents a startling, full-circle turnaround for all three of these dudes.
For starters, just think where Jones was almost exactly a year ago.
In mid-April 2015, he had just fled the scene of a car accident in his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jones was about to turn himself in to police on felony hit-and-run charges, which prompted the UFC to strip him of his title and place him on a suspension that at the time was termed “indefinite.”
In a larger sense, Jones was viciously—and perhaps unfairly—unpopular with a certain segment of MMA fans. He was already just a couple of months removed from the revelation he’d tested positive for cocaine during the lead-up to his win over Cormier at UFC 182, and it felt as though he had never emerged from the long shadow of UFC 151’s cancellation back in 2012.
He was the best fighter in the world, but he just couldn’t get it together outside the Octagon. Even if he did, he was never going to be Mr. Popularity.
Fast-forward 365-ish days and here Jones is, potentially the savior of the UFC’s biggest fight card of the year, poised to be (along with Jim Miller) one of only two athletes to appear at both UFCs 100 and 200, as well as on the verge of regaining his championship.
Is it possible Jones comes out of all this as—gasp!—a fan favorite? That would be perhaps the strangest development of all.
Meanwhile, an equally comprehensive change may also be afoot for McGregor, though arguably in the opposite direction.
He was the picture of a company man and was largely being heralded as the UFC’s next big star this time last year. He and featherweight champion Jose Aldo had just completed a gala “world tour” for their scheduled fight at UFC 189, and the entire industry was riding high on McGregor Mania.
Aldo would ultimately pull out of that meeting with an injury, only to be knocked stiff in 13 seconds by McGregor at UFC 194.
All seemed right with the Irishman’s world. Mystic Mac and the UFC, it appeared, would go on making beautiful music together for the foreseeable future.
Now? Things are a lot more uncertain.
UFC President Dana White has been careful not to bury McGregor since the fighter abruptly announced his retirement on Twitter last week. Even as the dispute between the athlete and the organization becomes clearer, White continues to insist that he and McGregor are on good terms and that the featherweight champion will fight soon at an upcoming event.
“Conor’s his own guy, he’s going to do what he’s going to do but he’s not fighting on [UFC] 200,” White told TMZ Wednesday, per Yahoo Sports’ Andreas Hale. “Listen, he’ll fight on 201, 202, 203, whatever, I don’t know when, but we’ll get it figured out.”
That’s all fine and good, but I’d be surprised if the two guys will be taking any more Ferrari rides together in the near future. And as for McGregor’s fans? Many are obviously sticking by him, though after the misinformation and PR mistakes of the last week, you could understand if some people are feeling a little fed up with the guy at the moment.
Then you have Cormier, who appears to have switched places with Jones in the court of public opinion so completely that the story of their rivalry might as well be another Freaky Friday remake.
A year ago, Cormier was one of the more universally loved figures in the light heavyweight division. He was the thoughtful veteran with the inspiring personal story—a budding TV personality who merely had the tough luck to come along at the same time as the greatest 205-pounder ever.
Something changed for DC after the UFC stripped Jones of the title. When Cormier fought and defeated Anthony Johnson to seize control of the vacant championship at UFC 187, people met the accomplishment mostly with scorn.
Jones never lost the title inside the cage, so many fans saw Cormier as an illegitimate champion. Much of the political capital he previously enjoyed seemed to disappear along with the victory.
On Wednesday, Jones’ home state of New York welcomed him back as a conquering hero for the first press conference since the rematch was officially confirmed for July. Cormier spent the presser getting booed out of the building.
So, that’s different.
With all this topsy-turvy change underway, it’s getting hard to know what to believe in. Times were so much simpler a year ago when all these men appeared content to just go on playing their well-established roles in the UFC.
Jones was the unpopular MMA genius.
Cormier was the likable perennial runner-up.
McGregor was the promotional wunderkind.
Spin things forward to the present day and the only constant has proved to be change.
![UFC-200-poster-Aldo-Edgar[3]](http://cdn.lowkickmma.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/UFC-200-poster-Aldo-Edgar3.jpg)
After months of speculation and a week’s worth of utter chaos, UFC 200 finally got its main event on Wednesday and—hold on—let me make sure I have all this right…