Tag: Fighting

Yushin Okami: "All I Think About Is Defeating Anderson (Silva)"

While the speculation surrounding a superfight between Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre continues to grow, Japanese star Yushin Okami looks to spoil that opportunity, as he will challenge the Brazilian for the UFC middleweight title at UFC Rio this…

While the speculation surrounding a superfight between Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre continues to grow, Japanese star Yushin Okami looks to spoil that opportunity, as he will challenge the Brazilian for the UFC middleweight title at UFC Rio this summer.

The recent announcement of Okami and Silva became somewhat of a surprise to most mixed martial arts fans, as UFC president Dana White stated previously that Silva and St-Pierre would meet if both champions were to defeat their opponents, which they did,  having essentially cleaned out their respective divisions.

But for now, it appears the UFC boss has other plans.

And for Okami, he seems quite content with being booked against Silva, who, after winning 10 of his last 12 UFC bouts, is ready to get his shot at the title.

“My opponent is the champion Anderson, the fight is in Brazil, and I am the challenger. I’d say that the table has been set,” he said to MMAFighting.com.

Okami has been eagerly awaiting a rematch with the champion ever since his debut in the UFC five years prior. In January, 2006, Okami was awarded the victory via disqualification after Silva landed an illegal kick that left the Japanese star unconscious and unable to continue.

While Okami said he believes Silva’s kick was not intentional, Silva has held a grudge against Okami and he publicly stated his opponent was able to continue the bout, but chose not to.

As a result, Okami is the last man to technically defeat Silva. And regarding Silva’s bad blood towards him, Okami said he could care less about what the Brazilian thinks of him.

“It doesn’t matter what he thinks,” he said. “All I think about is defeating Anderson.”

Okami has evolved since his first bout with Silva and has been paying close attention to the Brazilian’s recent performances, vowing that he will not be able to toy with him like he has done to past opponents.

“I will guarantee that he will not be bored when fighting me,” Okami said.

Although this won’t be their first encounter against one another, it will be the first time Silva defends his middleweight title in his homeland of Brazil, a difficult task Okami must overcome in order to beat the champion again.

Meanwhile, Silva, who will be defending his title for a unprecedented ninth time, is arguably the sport’s best pound-for-pound fighter and will look to exact revenge on Okami.

But Okami said he will not let the champion’s home-field advantage nor his mystique overwhelm him.

“He’s got an aura that intimidates any opponent,” he said. “I’m going to take that aura away from him.”

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UFC 129 Results: Could Mark Hominick Get Another Title Shot with a Couple Wins?

At UFC 129, Mark Hominick gave Jose Aldo a run for his money even with a hematoma on his head. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to grasp the UFC featherweight title from Aldo.Hominick though, may get another crack at the featherweight title with a cou…

At UFC 129, Mark Hominick gave Jose Aldo a run for his money even with a hematoma on his head. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to grasp the UFC featherweight title from Aldo.

Hominick though, may get another crack at the featherweight title with a couple more wins under his belt after he impressed the UFC with his UFC 129 performance.

“Oh, they were thrilled. They were like, ‘Heal up and we want you back as soon as you can. In another two fights you will get another crack at the title,’” Hominick told The Fan 590 Radio on Monday. “I know some of the things I have to work on to take him out. I don’t think he would be lining up to fight me to tell you the honest truth.”

Hominick took the fight to Aldo and in the fifth round made an impressive comeback to try and sway the judges in his favor. Hominick though lost to Aldo by unanimous decision and is now out for a little bit while he heals.

Hominick’s performance took place at home in Canada in front of 50,000 at Roger Centre in Toronto.

“It was just a constant stream [of cheering], that’s what I was hearing. It just made me try that much harder. I think I proved there is no quit in me,” Hominick said. “I know I was supposed to go in there and I wasn’t supposed to make it out of the first round, but I was just trying to finish him. I wanted that belt so bad.”

Now, though, Hominick must move on from his great performance last Saturday night and find a new opponent.

“[I’m going to] just take [on] a guy who’s maybe coming off of a win because I’m still in contention. I don’t think that fight puts me on the bottom of the pile. I’m still up there with the performance I put in,” Hominick said. “Jose Aldo hasn’t lost in five years. He’s never been in any type of trouble in any of his fights and I almost finished him. I took him to his limits. People know that I’m for real and I just have to go out there and prove it again. 

“Honestly, I think 30 seconds more and I could have finished the fight. I wasn’t stopping and he was fading. But again, the bell rang and he won, so I have to go back to the drawing board and come back stronger.”


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UFC 130: Gray Maynard Talks Frankie Edgar, Anthony Pettis and Rashad Evans

Gray Maynard will face Frankie Edgar for Edgar’s UFC lightweight title at UFC 130 on May 28 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight will be Maynard’s third bout against Edgar. The first time the two met, in 2008, Maynard proved victorious, defeating Edgar by u…

Gray Maynard will face Frankie Edgar for Edgar’s UFC lightweight title at UFC 130 on May 28 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight will be Maynard’s third bout against Edgar. The first time the two met, in 2008, Maynard proved victorious, defeating Edgar by unanimous decision.

The two battled again at UFC 125 on January 1 of this year, and fought to a five-round majority draw. The draw resulted in Edgar retaining the UFC title he won from BJ Penn at UFC 112. The loss and draw with Maynard are the only two blemishes on the record of Edgar (13-1-1).

Maynard ran up his impressive record of 10-0-1 (one no contest) facing some strong lightweight fighters. “I fought who they wanted me to and I asked for the top guys,” Maynard told MMAFA.TV.  “If you look at it now, in the top 10, I’ve fought about four of them: (Jim) Miller, Edgar, Nate (Diaz), (Dennis) Siver. I’ve never had an easy fight. I don’t like to explain that because either you know it or you don’t.”

Maynard does not see Anthony Pettis, the last WEC lightweight champion, as having the same pedigree as he does.

“Let’s look at who he’s fought. Ben Henderson is the best name. And I don’t mind fighting him; I don’t care if I win the belt and then I have to take him on,” Maynard continued.  “But for me, guys like Miller, Melendez and all of these guys who have been on the f***ing grind, fighting the best competition for the past few years…that’s what I look at.

“Who have you fought? I don’t care about how good you looked when you fought a scrub. That doesn’t matter. If a guy isn’t good then you’re not supposed to look good. And for me, (Pettis) has fought one good guy in Ben, and he isn’t proven yet. He’s tough as hell, but we’ll see.”

Pettis is currently scheduled to meet Clay Guida on June 4 during The Ultimate Fighter Season 13 finale show. If he is able to get past Guida he will be next in line to fight for the UFC lightweight title.

When talking about his January 1 fight with Edgar, Maynard thinks he knows where things went wrong.  “I’m still kind of new to all of this,” he said. “What happened when I caught Frankie in the first round, that’s never happened to me before so I didn’t know what to do. Next time I will. It’s a learning process and I’m still learning.”

The lightweight contender also spoke about his relationship with Rashad Evans, a fighter he roomed with during his college wrestling days at Michigan State University. “A lot of people have Rashad wrong. He’s the most down-to-earth guy, unbelievably nice,” Maynard said. “Rashad is my boy and he’s a real person. I like real people. I hate fake people. Absolutely hate them.”

UFC 130 will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 28, the main card will be broadcast on pay-per-view beginning at 9:00 pm ET.

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Anderson Silva Is Big Pimpin’ in His New Customized Camaro SS

Bleacher Report’s Jason Schielke:”It’s good to be king”—Tom PettyWhen you’re sporting a new sled like UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva is, it sure is good to be the king.Silva has joined UFC hall of fame member Randy Couture by purchasing a ne…

Bleacher Report’s Jason Schielke:

“It’s good to be king”—Tom Petty

When you’re sporting a new sled like UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva is, it sure is good to be the king.

Silva has joined UFC hall of fame member Randy Couture by purchasing a new Camaro SS. But this isn’t just any normal Camaro—this baby is tricked out like none other.

All the customizations done to this car are far too many to list. Thankfully, someone from the Camaro5.com forums took the time to break down everything West Coast Customs did to make the Camaro a one-of-a-kind for the “Spider.”

“The customization of Silva’s Camaro is extensive and to our eyes includes: custom paint, black stripes running from hood to tail, widened rear quarter fenders/shoulders with functional open rear quarter fender openings, Silva Bee grill emblem, Silva Bee embroidered headrest, back seats, trunk lid liner, and floormats, custom black spoke / yellow lip wheels, custom functional Transformers 2 style bumper air inlets, custom cowl ram air hood, custom, custom rear diffuser with exhaust outlet, black painted rear light bezel, SILVA door sills, alcantara headliner and door paneling, custom dashboard including driver facing gauges, dual colored seats, steering wheel, shift knob, contrasting stitching, in-dash screen, custom trunk subwoofer system and pop-up screens on rear quarter shoulders.”

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UFC 129 Video: Georges St-Pierre vs. Jake Shields Highlights

Georges St-Pierre met Jake Shields on Saturday, April 30 at UFC 129 and has been the case in many of his title defenses as of late, the UFC welterweight champion exploited the weakness in his opponent’s game to retain his UFC title.Going into the fi…

Georges St-Pierre met Jake Shields on Saturday, April 30 at UFC 129 and has been the case in many of his title defenses as of late, the UFC welterweight champion exploited the weakness in his opponent’s game to retain his UFC title.

Going into the fight, the knock on Shields had been his weak striking game, which St-Pierre used to his advantage, keeping the fight standing for the full five rounds.

The champion was able to take advantage of that weakness, but he did not walk away without sustaining some damage.

According to the CompuStrike stats, Shields landed 63 of 318 arm strikes he threw, leaving the champion with a bloodied face as well as a damaged left eye. The injury to the eye, which appeared to come from an eye poke from Shields, left St-Pierre unable to see from that eye for much of the fourth and fifth rounds.

In addition to bloodying the champion, Shields was able to accomplish something that no one else had done for 30 straight rounds, and that was take a round from the champion. The scorecards gave the unanimous decision victory to St-Pierre 50-45, 48-47, 48-47.

Following the fight, St-Pierre, speaking with UFC commentator Joe Rogan, apologized for his performance: “I can’t see with my left eye right now. I just see a blur. I’m sorry to the fans. I wanted to make it a knockout or submission.”

The fight marked the sixth title defense for St-Pierre.

video highlights courtesy ESPN

MMA News: Cung Le Will Not Fight in 2011

Bleacher Report’s Tony Preston:Cung Le, a Sanshou kickboxer and mixed marital artist, recently told ESPN that he will not be fighting in 2011.Instead, Le is going to be in five motion pictures this year. Due to his filming schedule, he says that a fi…

Bleacher Report’s Tony Preston:

Cung Le, a Sanshou kickboxer and mixed marital artist, recently told ESPN that he will not be fighting in 2011.

Instead, Le is going to be in five motion pictures this year. Due to his filming schedule, he says that a fight this year is “impossible.”

Le last fought in June 2010, in a fight against Scott Smith.

That bout saw Le claim victory over Smith by way of a second-round knockout. The fight was a rematch of their clash in December 2009, in which Smith pulled off a stunning third-round knockout over Le, despite Le having dominated. Le’s career record is 7-1, every fight ending by knockout.

Before his two fights with Smith, Le fought his biggest name opponent to date in Frank Shamrock for the Strikeforce middleweight title.

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