The MMA world wasn’t sure what to expect when former UFC, Strikeforce and IFL executive Shannon Knapp announced in that she was forming Invicta Fighting Championships, an all female MMA promotion.
Women’s fighting was still a novelty at the time, …
The MMA world wasn’t sure what to expect when former UFC, Strikeforce and IFL executive Shannon Knapp announced in that she was forming Invicta Fighting Championships, an all female MMA promotion.
Women’s fighting was still a novelty at the time, and the world didn’t know what to expect. But in 2012, due to the rising popularity of UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey and Invicta, female fighting is on the rise as we start 2013.
Invicta kicks things off for the women, as Invicta FC 4 takes place tomorrow night from Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas starting at 6 p.m. CST. You can watch the card on IPPV for $7.95 on InvictaFC.com, as the promotion has partnered with UStream to air the event.
When Invicta aired their first event last April, people really didn’t know what to expect. Each show gained more buzz, with Invicta reporting it had over 200,000 unique visitors for the first two shows. Invicta grew momentum as each show happened, and they are now looking forward to what lies ahead in 2013.
“If I had to sum it up (2012) in one word, I would say amazing,” Invicta President Shannon Knapp told Bleacher Report. “We have had an incredible and amazing year. I couldn’t have scripted it and painted a prettier picture. We are definitely happy with how the year (2012) turned out. We are looking forward to continuing the momentum in 2013.”
Anytime you are running a business, you come to the point where you eventually have to make money in order to be able to have financial stability. Invicta didn’t charge a fee online for people to watch the first three events. But with the show tomorrow night, Invicta is going to be partnering up with UStream to air the event on Internet PPV with a charge of $7.95. The event will be airing on InvictaFC.com.
Knapp knows that it is now time to start seeing if they can make money on the product, and gauge people’s willingness to pay the money to watch the fights.
“It comes back to we are moving into 2013 and to look at the prospects of monetizing,” Knapp stated. “I think this is a really good opportunity for us to really gauge where we are at. A lot of times we have people like, “Oh I would pay for that.”
“It’s giving everybody a chance to put their money where there mouth is. We wanted to make the price of $7.95 is fan friendly. Anytime you implement a change, you need to do it in a way so everybody can adjust to it. I felt this was a good price point and that let the fans know we aren’t out there to hurt anyone by any stretch of the imagination.”
“We need to do like any business does and that’s move forward with monetizing and keep things going.”
The year of 2012, for the women beyond the success of Invicta, demonstrated that women are now in capable of lasting in the UFC. The first big event will take place at UFC 157, as Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey will be squaring off against former Invicta import Liz Carmouche. Knapp knew women would be in the UFC and looks forward to seeing how the fans will respond.
“I’ve always said this was coming and Ronda (Rousey) would be the first (woman) from day one, I think it is amazing,” Knapp stated. “I think she’s worked hard and done a lot to help promote the sport. I think it is going to be interesting and I wish them much success. I definitely supported it and promoted it. How they (the UFC) have been with this affects my business.”
“I feel confident and comfortable that Zuffa is going to go in there, promote and do it well because that’s what they do. Ronda (Rousey) is breaking down barriers everyday and changing the game. We fight for the same cause. It’s going to be interesting to see how the fans respond, just for the fact that the UFC has been around for 20 years and it has been all male dominated.”
People are expecting an even better year from Invicta as we head into 2013. Knapp knows what they need to do and expects an even better product in the new year.
“You are always going to strive to be better at what we do,” Knapp stated. “We are going to be looking to improve our product and the overall visual of our product. We are going to keep going out there knocking down barriers.”
Unless otherwise stated, all quotes were obtained firsthand.
You can listen to the complete interview with Shannon Knapp here.
Last weekend at UFC 155, Jim Miller made a statement to the UFC lightweight division.It was a gritty, blood-covered and hard-nosed declaration that resonated throughout the MMA community following this three-round war with Joe Lauzon in Las Vegas. Over…
Last weekend at UFC 155, Jim Miller made a statement to the UFC lightweight division.
It was a gritty, blood-covered and hard-nosed declaration that resonated throughout the MMA community following this three-round war with Joe Lauzon in Las Vegas. Over the course of 15 minutes in what some are calling the “Fight of the Year,” the New Jersey-native proved the fires that fueled his previous run to title contention are still raging as he scrapped his way to victory in an action-packed tilt.
Prior to the co-main event, the pay-per-view portion of the card was flatlining, but when the cage door closed, the two lightweight fighters put on one of the best battles in recent memory. After an early onslaught by Miller, the two men spent the rest of the fight trading punches and attempting to out-manuever one another in grappling exchanges.
When the final bell sounded, the bout went to the judges’ cards where Miller took home the unanimous decision.
While the fight didn’t end in the fashion Miller hoped, the win over Lauzon to close out 2012 will set the stage for big things in the coming year.
“It was a fun fight,” Miller told Bleacher Report. “We went in there and fought hard. Both of us were dead at the end of it. I’ve never had a fight where I was so out of breath doing a post-fight interview. After the fight, I stood up for a couple of seconds, and then, I had to go sit down against the cage because I could barely stand at that point. That was satisfying because I left it all in there.
Even being confident that I won at that point, you still never know what’s going to happen. I’d rather be completely exhausted and hear the other guy’s name than have something left in the tank, having held something back and hear their name.
“Seeing the outpouring of compliments from the fans and the fight community make it feel like it was one of those ‘once in a career’ type fights. It left an impression on people, and it was cool to be a part of it. I still would have liked to finish him. I was trying to put him away in the first round, and from that point on, but even though I didn’t get the finish, it was still cool to be a part of that fight.
“I feel I made a pretty good statement. I want the big fights. I’ve proven that I can be in exciting fights and I’m excited to see what’s next.”
From the jump, both fighters set about imposing their respective wills.
After two minutes of back-and-forth exchanging, Miller landed a counter left hand that stunned Lauzon and put him on the defensive. Feeling he had his opponent hurt, the AMA-trained fighter unleashed a vicious flurry of short elbows which opened a nasty cut above Lauzon’s right eye. The Massachusetts native endured the attack, and after being battered and bloodied, survived the opening frame.
“It played out pretty good for me in the first round,” Miller said. “I came out and wanted to set the pace. I have an aggressive as well, and it seemed like he was getting a lot of attention before the fight for his aggression. But I think I pretty clearly out-aggressioned the most aggressive guy on our roster.
I just wanted to get in his face, and I had him hurt. I was connecting, and I really made an effort to put him away. I don’t think most guys would have survived that first round like he did and still been able to do some things later on in the fight.
“I could feel the finish there, and I was trying to keep the pressure on him. Thinking back on it, I probably should have changed my target a bit and went to the body because he was covering up pretty good up top. I should have went to the body in order to get him to drop his hands and maybe that would have opened him up for a knock out shot or something like that.
I had the momentum so I was trying to take it. I did not want to have to fight him for 15 minutes because he’s a dangerous guy. I was trying to take that opportunity and really run with it.”
Throughout his career Miller has been most effective when the action hits the canvas. An accomplished grappler, the 29-year old is a three-time “Submission of the Night” winner, but the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt has put intense focus on broadening his striking skills.
In the fight with Lauzon, the southpaw consistently found a home for his left hand, but it was the elbows Miller threw which did the most damage.
“Standing elbows are something I’ve been working on for a couple of years now,” Miller said. “It’s just one of those things where you have to get the reps in. I’ve done thousands of standing elbows now, and when I’m sparring with guys and we aren’t throwing elbows, I have to prevent myself from elbowing them. Which is what I want. I want it to come automatically and it has finally reached that point.
I threw some elbows at Ben [Henderson] and had a couple I threw at Nate [Diaz], but I just didn’t have the range down. I was able to find my range in this fight and make them count.”
Following Miller’s flurry of short elbows, Lauzon’s face became a blood mask. In between rounds, UFC’s ringside team of cut men did their best to shore up the wound, but once the action resumed, the cut resumed spilling blood all over the fighters and canvas alike.
For the man famously responsible for painting the floor of the Octagon crimson at the expense of Mac Danzig at UFC 100, Miller is no stranger to the unique situation of fighting through a blood bath. He believes it all comes down to adapting your game plan to the circumstances at hand and applied that strategy during the fight with Lauzon.
“It does become a factor,” Miller answered when asked about the blood. “It really makes it hard to get a hold of somebody. When we were tied up and I had him on the mat, I really wanted to use more of a pressure game and not let him bump me up or scramble. I wanted to use a tighter style of grappling I figured would work.
It was hard as hell to hold onto him, and it definitely made my job harder trying to keep him flat. The blood changes the way fights can go and what you have to do. You definitely don’t want to be on the bottom if you are bleeding or have the guy who is bleeding on top of you.”
With the fight clock ticking down and Miller heading toward the victory, Lauzon went for broke as he dove in with a flying heel hook. The TUF 5 alum wrapped his body around Miller’s legs, and both men hit the canvas as Lauzon attempted to crank out the submission.
While Miller admits the ankle lock and guillotine attempt that followed were tense moments, the level of exhaustion both fighters were experiencing made the submissions less dangerous than they appeared.
“The heel hook and ankle lock got a little uncomfortable, but I wasn’t really in pain from it,” Miller said. “As soon as he threw it we hit the mat and I started reaching for his hand. I got my heel driven through so it turned into a straight ankle lock. I made the note to myself that he was just going to have to break it.
I knew there were only 15 seconds left, and I was prepared to be walking on crutches right now if I had to, but it wasn’t even to the point where I would have tapped to it in training. As for the guillotine, we were both pretty exhausted so it really wasn’t that close.”
In the aftermath of the Miller versus Lauzon fight and the night’s main event which saw Cain Velasquez reclaim the heavyweight title in a lopsided victory over Junior dos Santos, a dialogue arose in the MMA community over when a fight should be stopped.
In both fights, with varying degrees in the debate, there were examples where officials could have stepped in and called the bout to save a fighter from taking unnecessary punishment.
It is an issue which is going to look different from every perspective. Miller, and many other fighters, operate from a headstrong approach. Outside of medical issues or the corner taking control, the fight should always go on.
There are people in attendance who have the power to say when enough is enough, but when it comes down to the fighter, they are always going to look for that “Hail Mary” opportunity no matter the circumstance.
“I think I can speak for most guys and you want to play it out,” Miller explained. “You want to keep going. Joe threw up a beautiful submission at the end of our fight and could have pulled it out if he had more energy. That’s the mentality we all have. It is the bottom of the 9th, two outs, bases loaded, down-by-three type attitude where you are going to look for that home run shot in the last second.
Fights have been won like that. Situations where the fight would have been lost had it gone to the cards but the fighter who was down pulled it out with a knockout or a submission.
“There are lots of ways fights can end, and you can’t count anybody out. Until the fight is stopped and over, anybody has the potential to muster up something. That is where you get the great stories. How great was Frankie’s comebacks against Gray? Those fights could have potentially been stopped, but you let it play out, and it becomes awesome and a fighter makes a big name for themselves.
“Nobody wants an opportunity taken away from them. The opportunity to pull out a spectacular finish. There are doctors present and people in place to monitor the situation. There have been some instances where you would think it might be necessary to stop something, but the refs do a good job. We are all human and everybody makes mistakes, but for the most part, they get it right. As a fighter, you put your trust in them when it comes to those things.”
With the victory over Lauzon, Miller has kept himself in the upper tier of one of the organization’s most competitive divisions. The race to remain at the top of the UFC’s 155-pound weight class is fierce, and with possibility of Strikeforce champion Gilbert Melendez and former Bellator champion Eddie Alvarez coming into the mix, the fight for top rankings are only going to get intensify.
“I will probably fight at least one of them,” Miller replied when asked about the potential newcomers.”There are a bunch of good guys coming in and there are still top guys in the UFC that I either haven’t fought yet or a guy like Gray, whom I fought for years ago, where it would be a totally different fight now.
There are plenty of matchups for me. It’s exciting and I’m looking forward to it because I like to fight. I want to fight them all. We’ll see how everything pans out and see who is next.”
Regardless of who the UFC taps him to face next, Miller is excited to see how the situation plays out. He is focused on making a run toward the lightweight title, and while the battle toward his ultimate goal of becoming a UFC champion continues, he’ll be in the gym every day grinding out progress the only way he knows how.
“I’m looking to constantly improve,” Miller added. “I’m working to be the best fighter I can be, and I don’t believe I’ve scratched the surface on that yet. I’m in the gym trying to learn everyday, and things are starting to come out in the fights that I’ve been working on for some time now. I’m creating those opportunities, and there is a lot more in store.”
Last year was the low end of the spectrum for Mark Munoz. After a dominant 2011 campaign which saw the “Filipino Wrecking Machine” pick up three solid wins and climb into the upper tier of the 185-pound weight class, the following 12 months were filled…
Last year was the low end of the spectrum for Mark Munoz. After a dominant 2011 campaign which saw the “Filipino Wrecking Machine” pick up three solid wins and climb into the upper tier of the 185-pound weight class, the following 12 months were filled with the type of adversity that could topple lesser men.
Following his victory over Chris Leben at UFC 138, Munoz was slated to face ChaelSonnen at UFC on Fox 2 in Chicago. The bout was figured by most to determine the next contender to Anderson Silva‘s crown, a goal the former NCAA Division 1 wrestling champion has been chasing since dropping down into middleweight waters.
Unfortunately for Munoz, an elbow injury would scratch him from the fight, and the surgery to repair the damage would keep him out for the first half of 2012. The 34-year-old would make his return to the Octagon against surging contender Chris Weidman. Despite his lengthy absence, the bout still carried title implications, but it wasn’t the performance Munoz was hoping for as he suffered a second-round knockout at the hands of the Ray Longo product.
Never one to be deterred by hardship, the Team Reign leader has set his sights on making 2013 the year where his goals will be accomplished. In Munoz’s mind, he’s had to adjust at every level of competition, and a year filled with setbacks has provided the inspiration for a huge comeback.
“I’ve always struggled at the beginning of my careers, whether it was wrestling or different levels of competition, it was hard in the beginning for me,” Munoz told Bleacher Report. “I struggled at the start of my wrestling career but I ended up excelling once I became comfortable and developed my style. Right now, I’m still fairly new to mixed martial arts. I’ve only been doing this for four and a half years.
“I’m a perfectionist. I pride myself in learning as much as I can. I’ve learned throughout every fight, especially my losses. This last loss is a setback for sure but setbacks are just a set up for a comeback. I’ve learned from it and it is time to move on. I’m staying positive and I’m going to keep shooting for that title because that is what I want the most.”
Munoz’s positive perspective is highly regarded throughout the sport. His reputation as one of MMA‘s “good guys” is a well-earned label, and when faced with the current trend of trash-talking and posturing to get higher-profile fights, Munoz is confident he’ll find his way through without compromising his character.
This situation came briefly into play last year when a recently signed Hector Lombard lashed out at Munoz after comments the Filipino made in an interview. The Cuban powerhouse asked to fight Munoz, and while time has passed and the face of the division changed, the former Oklahoma State wrestling standout isn’t opposed to a potential showdown between two of the UFC’s top middleweights.
“The Lombard fight makes sense,” Munoz said. “He came into the UFC and got upset with me saying he doesn’t deserve a title shot. He has to win a few times to be considered and he got mad at that. I was just being honest and up front.
“I’ve been in the division and the UFC for over three years and I felt that was the proper order of things. He got upset about the things I said and we’ll see how it turns out. We’ll see if our paths cross. If it does—cool, but if not, I won’t be hurt off it either.
“Fans are never going to see me take the villain role. I’m going to do things on my terms and according to the way I was raised. I carry myself with respect and any fighter I face; I’m going to respect them as well. But at the same time, I’m not going to fear anyone.
“I’m a competitor and I want to get to the top. I definitely set a goal and I want to accomplish that goal. I’m not going to put on that black hat and just start talking trash about everyone I step into the cage with. I’m not going to do that. I’m going to give them respect and we will settle things in the cage.”
The road to the top is a difficult path to travel. While Munoz may still be fairly new in his career as a mixed martial artist, it is a climb he has made before. Plenty of variables come into play as a fighter attempts to make his way into contender status. With the recent formula detouring from the normal sum of wins and losses, additional obstacles have been added. While it isn’t the way Munoz is used to things being handled, he also understands the business of the matter.
“When you look at competition you want things to go to who deserves it the most,” Munoz said. “But at the same time, I see where the UFC is going with giving people fights that are going to draw a lot of attention. This is a business and you have to match business and what is fair in competition as well.
“You don’t want to continue to give other people fights when someone is doing their darndest to work their way to the No. 1 contender spot trying to earn their shot at the title. You can’t just keep skipping over people. That being said, there are certain fights the people want to see.
“I come from the sport of wrestling and you see returning national champions come in and get beat first round. If they get beat first round, they are not wrestling for a title. That is where I came from and that is what is fair. You get beat—you have to wait. I’ve experienced this twice in mixed martial arts.
“I reached the pinnacle twice. I lost to YushinOkami and had to win four straight before even being considered for a contender position. I reached that peak again, lost to Chris Weidman, and here we go again. For me it is about deserving a title shot and doing what is necessary to accomplish that goal.
“I’ve done things within the realm of competition but I’m starting to become aware of this being a business as well. I have to be a business man too and under these circumstances I have to voice my opinion.”
Many things combine to make a fighter successful, but work ethic and determination are high on the list of intangibles which can take an athlete to the next level. Fortunately for Munoz, those attributes are in heavy supply, and he has every intention of climbing his way back to contention in the coming year.
“You are going to see a different Mark Munoz in 2013,” he said. “Especially when it comes to a more well-rounded striking game. That has always been my weak link and people know that. Striking is an area I’ve put a lot of focus on and people are going to see improvements in that aspect of my game.
“I pride myself on learning and continuing to improve as a competitor, but at the same time, I go in there with ferocity and intensity. Fans are always going to see that from me but I’m coming into the new year a different man.
“I’m excited for what the new year is going to bring. I’m going to work my butt off to reach where I want to be, but I’m not going to be a punk in the process. I’m going to treat people the way I want to be treated. I use the Golden Rule and I’ll continue to be considered one of the nicest guys in the sport.”
Smealinho “The Prince” Rama may be Canada’s most dangerous man, but he insists that hasn’t come this far on his own.Rama, an undefeated heavyweight under the Maximum Fighting Championship banner, has his parents, a younger siste…
Smealinho “The Prince” Rama may be Canada’s most dangerous man, but he insists that hasn’t come this far on his own.
Rama, an undefeated heavyweight under the Maximum Fighting Championship banner, has his parents, a younger sister, several training partners and three coaches in his corner. But Rama is adamant that it is Vlad Goldenstein, the 20-year-old’s boxing coach and mentor, who has made the biggest impact on his young career.
“He isn’t just a trainer; he’s like a father to me,” says Rama, who was born in Albania and raised in Greece before immigrating to Canada as a teenager. “My parents work all day—we hardly have time to speak—but Vlad works in an office, so I get to talk to him the whole day, so he’s constantly trying to teach me lessons and helping me evolve as a person, which is awesome. Vlad has given me confidence in myself to do this.”
But Goldenstein, an amateur boxer in his native Russia before deciding to call Calgary home 14 years ago, is reluctant to take too much credit for his student’s success.
“He had skills before he met me,” says Goldenstein, 53. “He’s just a naturally talented kid in anything he touches. He just needed guidance, you know?”
Rama, FightMatrix.com’s 2012 male rookie of the year, feels that Goldenstein has led him to this point in his career. But more importantly, Rama, a veteran of hundreds of street fights in his youth, feels Goldenstein has meant even more to him outside of the cage.
“I lived this weird life where I was around criminals and all these kinds of people,” Rama says of his life before meeting his mentor. “I was living in this fantasy world where nighttime was the time to be out and doing whatever you wanted was the way to be.
“He showed me that that’s not the way to live, that’s not the way to be happy.”
Goldenstein, a married father of two, has witnessed Rama’s transition inside—and outside—of the cage firsthand.
“When he came to our gym, nobody would pay attention to him—he always was in a good mood—but nobody would take him seriously,” says Goldenstein, who shares coaching duties with Keegan Hanning, a man known as “Frenchy” and Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor Anderson Goncalves.
“But now, you should see how people look at him. Lots of people want to train with—lots of people don’t want to spar with him because he’s too complicated—but the way people react around him now is totally different.
“He has changed a lot in a good way.”
As it turns out, Rama’s relationship with Goldenstein—which he insists saved him from a life of crime and an early death—almost never materialized.
Rama knew that he wanted Goldenstein training him in some capacity when the two first crossed paths at the now-defunct Calgary Fight Club nearly two years ago—“We just had that instant connection,” he says. But Goldenstein, unimpressed by Rama’s attitude at the time, wasn’t confident that the pairing would work.
“I didn’t want to work with him,” Goldenstein says. “He had kind of an attitude, you know what I mean? He was a very young, cocky kid, all the time talking about how great he is and all this stuff.
“I’m an old-school guy—I don’t like people who talk; I like people who do.”
Rama, for lack of a better word, harassed Goldenstein in the gym, on the street and over the telephone before the two ultimately agreed to meet and train.
About 18 months—and hundreds of training sessions—later, Rama, who is undefeated entering his second year in the professional ranks of the sport, is to meet Mike Hackert at MFC 36 in Edmonton on Feb. 15—a match that will likely make clear who the No. 1 and No. 2 heavyweights in Canada are.
Rama, who feels he is The Great White North’s top heavyweight already, is confident, of course, that he will walk away from his next bout with a decisive victory. But with the help of Goldenstein, “The Prince” plans on being recognized as among the elite on the international scene in the years to come.
“I love the MFC—everybody there has treated me like a king from the start—but I want to win the MFC belt, defend my belt, put my name on the company,” he says. “And then go to the UFC and do something great there.”
Goldenstein is more than confident that Rama has what it takes to excel in the sport he has chosen, but he admittedly isn’t as interested in a world championship as his strong-willed student—“although that is the goal,” he is quick to point out.
“What is my goal in this thing?” Goldenstein says. “Just making him a better guy—to help him understand what it means for him to be a better person.”
Goldenstein’s goals aren’t lost on Rama.
“Vlad has taught me how to be a human being, how to live my life and enjoy myself and that a lot of things don’t matter,” Rama says. “Cars and chains and stuff like that don’t matter—they don’t mean a single thing. It’s how you feel about yourself, how your family and loved ones think about you.
“I really had the wrong idea of what I wanted out of this life. I wanted all the wrong things for the wrong reasons. He’s taught me how to be a good human being, a good person and how to be happier.”
Ed Kapp is a Regina, Saskatchewan-based freelance journalist. Unless otherwise noted, all quotations were obtained firsthand.
With the competitive lightweight division only getting hotter, Jim Miller finds himself in a make-or-break situation. It wasn’t long ago the New Jersey native was putting together a seven-fight win streak that had him knocking on the door of a title sh…
With the competitive lightweight division only getting hotter, Jim Miller finds himself in a make-or-break situation. It wasn’t long ago the New Jersey native was putting together a seven-fight win streak that had him knocking on the door of a title shot, but after dropping two of his last three outings, Miller’s back is against the wall heading into his bout with Joe Lauzon this weekend at UFC 155.
The opportunity to fight Lauzon arose when former No. 1 contender Gray Maynard was forced to withdraw from the bout due to injury. When the UFC tapped Miller to face the season 5 TUFalum, the 29-year-old saw the perfect situation develop which would allow him remain a factor in a heated race in the 155-pound weight class.
“This fight comes at the right time and is a perfect opportunity to get back to where I want to be,” Miller told Bleacher Report. “For this camp, I’ll get about six weeks. Some people consider that short notice, but I’m not one of them. Short notice to me means a couple of weeks. As long as you are not walking around too heavy, you should be able to make the weight by fight night. If you can’t do that in six weeks, you really need to question your commitment to being a professional fighter.”
It is often said in MMA that styles make fights and the stylistic similarities between Miller and Lauzon make this matchup extremely interesting. Both men have shown to have solid power in their hands, but the dominant skill set for Miller and Lauzon comes when the action hits the canvas.
Much like his counterpart, Miller has proven to have slick submission skills. While he believes there are areas he would hold advantages, Miller is pumped up and looking forward to mixing it up with a talented fighter with Lauzon‘s credentials.
“Joe is a dangerous opponent,” Miller said. “He is very skilled on the ground and is a solid fighter. Judging from his past fights, it looks like he hits pretty hard as well. He’s an aggressive fighter, and I typically have done very well against guys who come at me that way. I think it is going to be a great matchup stylistically and I’m really looking forward to it.
“I think I’ll have an advantage in the strength department, but I put far more focus on the technique aspect. Technique should beat strength every time, and the little details are going to be important in this fight.”
While a victory over Lauzon won’t put Miller in a position to fight for the UFC title, a loss would threaten to push him out of the division’s coveted top 10 rankings. As things continue to heat up in one of the UFC’s most talent-rich weight classes, Miller fully understands the situation at hand, and knows it is crucial for him to emerge victorious at UFC 155.
“This division has been crazy,” Miller said. “After the title rematches and what not, things are flowing again. But when everything was tied up because of the rematches, there were a few of us who went good runs. Then it just so happens over that time, pretty much all of us lost, and now things look completely different. I’m trying to claw my way back up the ladder and put another streak together.
“Fighting for the title has always been my goal. I’m going to do whatever it takes to put myself in that position. I’m ready to get back to the win column. I’m coming to fight. I’m coming to beat him up and put him away. I don’t like close fights, and I don’t want them. I want to go in there and dominate every time I fight. Fans need to be ready for a Jim Miller who is coming out on fire and ready to get after it.”
Duane Finley is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report’s Caged In. All quotes are obtained first hand unless noted otherwise.
Mitch Clarke needs just two words—“roller coaster”—to describe the past 12 months.“Lots of ups and downs,” the 27-year-old Saskatoon product says. Clarke kicked off 2012 hard on the heels of his first career defeat&m…
Mitch Clarke needs just two words—“roller coaster”—to describe the past 12 months.
“Lots of ups and downs,” the 27-year-old Saskatoon product says.
Clarke kicked off 2012 hard on the heels of his first career defeat—his big-show debut against John Cholish at UFC 140—and followed that up with a split decision loss to Anton Kuivanen in July.
The loss would’ve been bad enough for Clarke, who was undefeated in nine bouts before signing with the UFC in 2011, but the former University of Saskatchewan walk-on wrestler blew out his knee 20 seconds into the bout.
But even the worst roller coasters go up, too.
Prior to Clarke’s second bout in the UFC, he found himself at the MMA Lab in Glendale and earlier this month, Clarke had his knee surgery and is preparing to return to the canvas in 2013.
It has been a trying year, to be certain, but Clarke, a man who watches more cartoons than many children, remains optimistic.
The loss, the injury, my personal life basically going down the tubes post fight led to an emotional time, says Clarke, who hopes to be back to 100 percent by mid-January. But it also helped strengthen a lot of personal relationships and build brand new ones, like meeting and training with Brian Cobb in the states and I found a new home for my training camps at the MMA Lab under John Crouch and Benson Henderson.
With a new “family” in Arizona to help him prepare for his return to the octagon, Clarke is hoping to make 2013—and the years to follow—everything that 2012 wasn’t.
“(In 2013, I) definitely want a win in the UFC,” Clarke says. “But I’d like to start carving out my legacy in the sport this year and hopefully be remembered for doing something in the sport.”
Ed Kapp is a Regina, Saskatchewan-based journalist. Unless otherwise noted, all quotations were obtained firsthand.
The MMA world wasn’t sure what to expect when former UFC, Strikeforce and IFL executive Shannon Knapp announced in that she was forming Invicta Fighting Championships, an all female MMA promotion.
Last weekend at