When the Lavar Johnson versus Brendan Schaub match became official, MMA fans immediately were ready to predict an explosive knockout as the ending. Johnson is known for his knockout power while Schaub has had displayed a questionable chin but has KO po…
When the Lavar Johnson versus Brendan Schaub match became official, MMA fans immediately were ready to predict an explosive knockout as the ending. Johnson is known for his knockout power while Schaub has had displayed a questionable chin but has KO power of his own. Alas this exciting stand-up battle will not come to fruition […]
There’s no need for a wordy introduction here: Strikeforce has officially become so incompetent that it can’t even die correctly.
After canceling two consecutive events, Strikeforce planned to have an absolutely stacked grand finale on January 12, 2013 featuring three title fights and Heavyweight Grand Prix champion Daniel Cormier. Much like everything else that Strikeforce has planned since being purchased by Zuffa, things quickly went wrong. First, lightweight kingpin Gilbert Melendez got injured/realized he was in a no-win scenario fighting for Strikeforce again and pulled out of the event. Now, middleweight champion Luke Rockhold is also off of the card, citing a wrist injury as the reason for his departure. According to The MMA Corner:
The MMA Corner has learned from sources close to the camp of Rockhold that the middleweight champion has suffered a wrist injury and has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled Jan. 12 title defense against Lorenz Larkin.
There’s no need for a wordy introduction here: Strikeforce has officially become so incompetent that it can’t even die correctly.
After canceling two consecutive events, Strikeforce planned to have an absolutely stacked grand finale on January 12, 2013 featuring three title fights and Heavyweight Grand Prix champion Daniel Cormier. Much like everything else that Strikeforce has planned since being purchased by Zuffa, things quickly went wrong. First, lightweight kingpin Gilbert Melendez got injured/realized he was in a no-win scenario fighting for Strikeforce again and pulled out of the event. Now, middleweight champion Luke Rockhold is also off of the card, citing a wrist injury as the reason for his departure. According to The MMA Corner:
The MMA Corner has learned from sources close to the camp of Rockhold that the middleweight champion has suffered a wrist injury and has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled Jan. 12 title defense against Lorenz Larkin.
Rockhold and Larkin were previously slated to meet on Strikeforce’s Nov. 3 card, but Rockhold was forced out of that contest with an injury to the same wrist and the entire card was subsequently canceled.
For those of you keeping score, Strikeforce’s final card, Strikeforce: Champions, now features only one champion. That champion, welterweight champion Nate Marquardt, will be defending his title against Tarec Saffiedine, assuming Nate the Great doesn’t also pull out of this utterly pointless title defense. Also on the card, Heavyweight Grand Prix champion Daniel Cormier will beat up Dutch veteran Dion Staring and Mike Kyle will fight former champion Gegard Mousasi.
Anyone out there want to bet that this event ends up getting scrapped as well?
Not that it matters to Anderson Silva, but UFC 155 was supposed to set the stage for a fight that would more or less* determine the next top contender of the middleweight division when Chris Weidman and Tim Boetsch squared off. But as things are wont to do in 2012, it has just been announced that Weidman has suffered an undisclosed injury and has been forced to pull out from his scheduled fight at UFC 155. Newsday was the first to break the news:
Chris Weidman, one of the top UFC middleweight fighters, is out of UFC 155 next month with a shoulder injury, Newsday has learned.
Weidman said the injury occured Tuesday while training in Arizona with UFC light heavyweight Ryan Bader and Levittown-based Strikeforce light heavyweight Gian Villante. The injury occured during a grappling session, the 28-year-old Weidman said.
“I hit a double-leg and that’s it,” Weidman said Wednesday. “My shoulder landed weird and I felt a pop. I can’t even move my arm.”
Weidman said that he hasn’t received an official diagnosis from doctors, but he believes it is a torn labrum.
Well, we should have seen this coming.
Not that it matters to Anderson Silva, but UFC 155 was supposed to set the stage for a fight that would more or less* determine the next top contender of the middleweight division when Chris Weidman and Tim Boetsch squared off. But as things are wont to do in 2012, it has just been announced that Weidman has suffered an undisclosed injury and has been forced to pull out from his scheduled fight at UFC 155. Newsday was the first to break the news:
Chris Weidman, one of the top UFC middleweight fighters, is out of UFC 155 next month with a shoulder injury, Newsday has learned.
Weidman said the injury occured Tuesday while training in Arizona with UFC light heavyweight Ryan Bader and Levittown-based Strikeforce light heavyweight Gian Villante. The injury occured during a grappling session, the 28-year-old Weidman said.
“I hit a double-leg and that’s it,” Weidman said Wednesday. “My shoulder landed weird and I felt a pop. I can’t even move my arm.”
Weidman said that he hasn’t received an official diagnosis from doctors, but he believes it is a torn labrum.
It’s the latest in the continuing trials and tribulations for the Long Islander, who recently had his home all but completely destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. Besides missing the payday, this has to be exceptionally disappointing for Weidman, who, barring some sort of insane last minute comeback, would have likely cruised past Boetsch and cemented his spot as the top middleweight contender. But again, even an impressive victory would do little to impress Silva, who has already stated that he isn’t the least bit interested in fighting Weidman. If you ask me, it’s Weidman’s own fault for lacking the drawing power of a Chael Sonnen or a Lorenzo Lamas. Maybe if he starts ripping off WWE speeches while doing burnouts with his Harley, Anderson will start to play ball.
But there is a silver lining in this storm cloud, albeit an infinitesimal one. Stepping up in Weidman’s absence will be streaking middleweight contender Costa Philippou, who was recently given a severe case of blue balls when Nick Ring pulled out of their UFC 154 fight on just one day’s notice after coming down with the flu. Philippou is currently 4-1 in the UFC, and most recently scored a unanimous decision over Riki Fukuda at UFC 148.
Thankfully for the UFC, Weidman’s withdrawal will not break their already stacked year-ending card. Then again, we’re still over a month out from UFC 155, so let’s just cross our fingers and hope that Weidman is the last main-carder to pull out.
*I say “more or less” because there are still some of you out there who are convinced that Michael Bisping is the true #1 contender and I have simply given up trying to convince you otherwise. If he manages to beat Vitor Belfort, however, I will start to entertain this ridiculous notion.
We here at CagePotato have literally taken every possible step in order to rid the MMA world of the great injury curse of 2012: we’ve prayed (lol!), we’ve had our cleaning lady Concepcion rid the office of evil spirits, we’ve resorted to Pagan rituals involving pentagrams, we’ve even had Rex track down “thisredengine” and sacrifice his virginal body to the Gods. And after all that fell flat, we tried to go Freddy Kruger on the curse and simply stop talking about it in the hopes that it would eventually just leave us be and move on to some other, less important sport. Like women’s ______.
But alas, our efforts were a complete failure. In the past few days, at least four fighters have come down with a case of the injury bug, leading to some small yet noticeable changes in several of the UFC’s upcoming cards. And we wonder why even Canadian fans are cautious to buy a ticket these days. (Author’s note: You see, Dana? THIS is what happens when you read from the Necronomicon. Side effects include nausea, meniere’s disease, Saturday night palsy, and possessed hand.)
We shall begin today’s trip down injury lane with Kyle Noke…
We here at CagePotato have literally taken every possible step in order to rid the MMA world of the great injury curse of 2012: we’ve prayed (lol!), we’ve had our cleaning lady Concepcion rid the office of evil spirits, we’ve resorted to Pagan rituals involving pentagrams, we’ve even had Rex track down “thisredengine” and sacrifice his virginal body to the Gods. And after all that fell flat, we tried to go Freddy Kruger on the curse and simply stop talking about it in the hopes that it would eventually just leave us be and move on to some other, less important sport. Like women’s ______.
But alas, our efforts were a complete failure. In the past few days, at least four fighters have come down with a case of the injury bug, leading to some small yet noticeable changes in several of the UFC’s upcoming cards. And we wonder why even Canadian fans are cautious to buy a ticket these days. (Author’s note: You see, Dana? THIS is what happens when you read from the Necronomicon. Side effects include nausea, meniere’s disease, Saturday night palsy, and possessed hand.)
We shall begin today’s trip down injury lane with Kyle Noke, who is coming off a first round blistering of Charlie Brenneman at UFC 152 that, although a little premature in its stoppage, led to “The Spaniard’s” current place in the Zuffa unemployment soup line. Noke was scheduled to face streaking Polish powerhouse Seth Baczynski at UFC on FX 6, but withdrew earlier this week. He has been replaced by Mike Pierce, who is on the heels of a come-from-behind KO of Aaron Simpson at UFC on FX 5. Baczynski is coming off a skull-shattering knockout win of his own against Simeon Thoreson at UFC 152, so expect fireworks here.
Next up, we have a welterweight matchup that features neither of its original participants, as everyone’s favorite stoner, Matt Riddle, and “butter-toothed Brit” John Maguire have stepped in to replace Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson and Besam Yousef, respectively, at UFC 154. Due to his positive test for marijuana, Riddle’s previous UFC 149 submission victory over Chris Clements was recently changed to a no-contest, moving his record to 1-2 1 NC in his past four fights. You could argue that Maguire is in an even worse position, however, despite the fact that he has only lost one of his three UFC bouts. That loss came to fellow Brit John Hathaway at UFC on FUEL 5 in the worst possible fashion: a dreadfully boring three round affair that was forgotten about before the judges could declare a winner. I blame the general politeness of the British for that one.
And in bantamweight injury news, TUF 14 runner-up T.J Dillashaw has been replaced in his upcoming UFC on FOX 5 bout against Mike Easton by fellow castmate Bryan Caraway. The Canadian has scored two straight rear-naked choke victories in the UFC since getting the tar beat out of him by Diego Brandao on the reality show, while Easton is coming off his third consecutive octagon victory over Ivan Menjivar at UFC 148. It’s an incredibly tough fight for “Kid Lightning,” but something tells us that the Caraway household could use the money right about now.
Unless you’ve been a close follower of the Utah MMA scene over the past few years, chances are that you’ve probably forgotten all about TUF 2 alum Josh Burkman. After a three fight skid saw him ousted from the UFC back in 2008, Burkman took over a year and a half off to recover from several injuries that could have ended any lesser man’s career, injuries Burkman admits in hindsight that he should have addressed much earlier. But if you were to ask Josh how the past few years have treated him, you’d think he was on top of the world.
I called Josh at approximately 5:15 p.m. EST yesterday. He was just stepping into his house after a long day of training for his November 3rd match against fellow UFC veteran Gerald Harris on the inaugural card of the Ray Sefo-run World Series of Fighting promotion. It’s a win that could very well propel “The People’s Warrior” back into the octagon for the first time in over four years, yet he doesn’t appear to be showing any signs of the pressure getting to him. I ask him how he’s doing. “Life is good,” he tells me, making sure to kiss his ten day old son as soon as he enters the house. From the get-go, I can tell that Josh is a much more open and laid back guy than some of the fighters I’ve dealt with in the past. But little did I know that before our conversation was over, we would discuss everything from his career comeback and newly found lease on life to his infamous in and out of the ring brawls with Jeremy Horn and Phil Baroni.
Unless you’ve been a close follower of the Utah MMA scene over the past few years, chances are that you’ve probably forgotten all about TUF 2 alum Josh Burkman. After a three fight skid saw him ousted from the UFC back in 2008, Burkman took over a year and a half off to recover from several injuries that could have ended any lesser man’s career, injuries Burkman admits in hindsight that he should have addressed much earlier. But if you were to ask Josh how the past few years have treated him, you’d think he was on top of the world.
I called Josh at approximately 5:15 p.m. EST yesterday. He was just stepping into his house after a long day of training for his November 3rd match against fellow UFC veteran Gerald Harris on the inaugural card of the Ray Sefo-run World Series of Fighting promotion. It’s a win that could very well propel “The People’s Warrior” back into the octagon for the first time in over four years, yet he doesn’t appear to be showing any signs of the pressure getting to him. I ask him how he’s doing. “Life is good,” he tells me, making sure to kiss his ten day old son as soon as he enters the house. From the get-go, I can tell that Josh is a much more open and laid back guy than some of the fighters I’ve dealt with in the past. But little did I know that before our conversation was over, we would discuss everything from his career comeback and newly found lease on life to his infamous in and out of the ring brawls with Jeremy Horn and Phil Baroni.
I started by asking him all the formalities about Harris — what Josh thinks his strongest and weakest areas are and how he has trained to deal with them– and he was more than frank when assessing his upcoming opponent. But rather than detail how he planned to defeat Harris, Burkman simply stated that the intrigue of figuring out another person’s fighting style is one of the reasons he became a mixed martial artist in the first place:
“[Harris] is so big and strong and he’s got heavy hands. And he’s a great wrestler. He seems to be able to control his fights and take them where he wants them to go. It’s always fun for me going into a fight to figure that out, and that’s kind of what my training revolves around; figuring out that problem out and how that plays into my game. It all comes out on November 3rd and I’m ready for that. That’s why I fight. I fight for that competition, for that chance to figure someone out, and I feel I’m more prepared for Gerald Harris than I’ve been for any other fight in my career.”
I asked Burkman whether or not he viewed himself as the underdog coming into the fight and Josh was quick to admit that he had been out of the public eye for quite a while longer than Harris, and could therefore find himself playing that role whether he wants to or not:
“You know, Gerald Harris, he’s kind of been in a bigger scene than I’ve been in as of late. I think that most people have heard about what he’s been doing a little bit more; he’s a little bit more high-profile than I am going into this fight and I think that’s probably what people are seeing.”
But don’t be fooled, Burkman is not exactly selling himself short. He mentioned that, since coming back from the devastating injuries that limited him during his last few fights in the UFC, he’s racked up five wins against only one loss, including wins over Bellator vet Jordan Smith (who was undefeated at the time) and UFC veterans Brandon Melendez and Jamie Yager.
“Harris is in that line of each opponent being better and better than the last for me. I think Harris the best guy I’ve fought since I’ve comeback, and I’m gonna try and show that. It’s coming quick, isn’t it?” he says with a chuckle.
As any conversation with a UFC veteran such as Burkman will inevitably take, we began to talk about his former promotion. Specifically, whether or not he felt a win over Harris would earn him another shot at Zuffa glory.
“This fight is right where I want to be in my career. I went on a nice little run in the UFC, then I got injured, and I couldn’t train like I wanted to train. I had to take a year and a half off and during that year and a half off I didn’t know whether I would be able to comeback and fight or not. As I came back, I wanted to fight in Utah and I fought Melendez and Smith, two guys that were big names in Utah and had fought on the UFC and Bellator level. I had to prove to myself that I could fight at that level again. And once I was able to, I was like ‘Alright, let’s step it up a little bit, then step it up a little bit more.’
When I was first in the UFC, I had only been fighting for two years and I was getting big fights and a lot of publicity. I felt like I was learning as I was going and as I was fighting. Now, I feel like I’ve been around and learned a lot of the different styles. I’ve trained with guys like Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture and the best in the business. I’ve kind of brought all that into my own style.”
But even more than what Burkman has been up to professionally, he credited his recent marriage to International Yoga Champion Brandy Lyn Winfield and incredibly recent birth of his son as the factors that pushed him to prove to the world that he was ready for another shot at the big time.
“All of those things have now come together to where I’m ready to get back out on a bigger scene and see how much better I am than I was then. A win over Gerald Harris let’s everyone know that [I] haven’t been sitting around. I’m better than I’ve ever been and I think that’s what this fight is going to show.”
Click on the “next page” tab to hear Burkman discuss everything from his former training partner Chael Sonnen’s upcoming TUF gig/fight against Jon Jones to the time he was spit on by Jeremy Horn and cheap-shotted by Phil Baroni at a nightclub.
In the video, St. Pierre discusses how his injury actually helped reignite a long quelled flame within him, as well as how his training partners, coaches, and team of doctors all but completely removed the mere memory of the surgery he underwent some months ago. But according to “Rush,” the biggest lesson he took away from the recovery process was that “elth is the most important thing in the world. You can ave welt, evryting, money, but you don’t ave elth, it’s useless.”
In the video, St. Pierre discusses how his injury actually helped reignite a long quelled flame within him, as well as how his training partners, coaches, and team of doctors all but completely removed the mere memory of the surgery he underwent some months ago. But according to “Rush,” the biggest lesson he took away from the recovery process was that “elth is the most important thing in the world. You can ave welt, evryting, money, but you don’t ave elth, it’s useless.”
