UFC 121 Fight Card: Lesnar vs. Velasquez

Filed under: UFCBrock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez will headline the UFC 121 fight card happening Oct. 23 from the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

Lesnar (5-1) puts his UFC heavyweight belt on the line for his third time in a matchup against undefeated …

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Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez will headline the UFC 121 fight card happening Oct. 23 from the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

Lesnar (5-1) puts his UFC heavyweight belt on the line for his third time in a matchup against undefeated Velasquez (8-0).

The stacked card also features the UFC debut of Jake Shields as well as appearances by Diego Sanchez and Tito Ortiz.

The complete pay-per-view card is below.

Dana White Undecided On Who Should Get Next Welterweight Title Shot After Koscheck

(Video courtesy TheMMAFix)It looks like Dana White wasn’t thrilled with Jon Fitch’s less than enthralling performance in his win over Thiago Alves at UFC 118 last month, since the UFC president has now rescinded an earlier assertion that the winne…


(Video courtesy TheMMAFix)

It looks like Dana White wasn’t thrilled with Jon Fitch’s less than enthralling performance in his win over Thiago Alves at UFC 118 last month, since the UFC president has now rescinded an earlier assertion that the winner of the bout would be next in line for a title shot at the winner of December’s Georges St-Pierre-Josh Koscheck showdown.

During an appearance on Comcast Sportsnet Washington’s The MMA Fix, White said the welterweight title picture is a bit murkier than it seemed a few weeks ago, which may be partially a result of Fitch’s conservative stall and brawl tactics he employed to decision Alves.

"I want to wait for Koscheck and St-Perre to happen and we’ll figure out who gets the next shot," White explained noncommittally.  "By then Jake Shields will have fought…Kampmann…you know…we’ll see what happens. A lot of it is timing too."

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Inside the Mind of Mayhem

Filed under: Strikeforce, FanHouse ExclusiveIt’s just after 6 p.m. in an upscale steakhouse in Houston and already Jason “Mayhem” Miller is yelling at me. Maybe it’s not so much at me. More like near me. More like near everyone in the room, and people …

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It’s just after 6 p.m. in an upscale steakhouse in Houston and already Jason “Mayhem” Miller is yelling at me. Maybe it’s not so much at me. More like near me. More like near everyone in the room, and people are starting to notice.

“It’s stupid, all these people who are so worried about communism if we get free health care,” Miller says, his voice rising far past what most people would consider an indoor volume. “What if the fire department made you go through the same steps as the non-socialist health care system?”

Businessmen in ties glance up from their prime rib dinners at the next table. Any thought they may have had of asking Miller to keep it down vanish when they see the source of the commotion – a rangy, cauliflower-eared 29-year-old with a nose that looks as if it’s been broken just for fun on more than one occasion, gesturing spastically as he becomes more agitated.

“Imagine, you call them up and they’re like, ‘Do you have fire insurance?’ And you’re saying, ‘Uh, my house is burning down right now.’ ‘Are you PPO or HMO? ‘The house is on fire!’ ‘What’s your policy number?’ ‘Okay, it’s, uh, 97JK39W2.’ ‘What’s your group ID?’ ‘AHHHHHH! MY HOUSE IS GONE!'”

He erupts into his trademark laugh, an almost cartoonishly maniacal cackle that suggests he might be on the verge of either torturing James Bond or simply flipping the table over on a whim. It’s the kind of laugh that makes me briefly wonder whether this whole dinner idea, where I would sit down with Miller to learn a little about what makes this enigmatic fighter tick, was really such a brilliant notion.

MMA Top 10 Welterweights: Jon Fitch Stuck at No. 2

Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, Rankings, WelterweightsIf there was any doubt that Jon Fitch is the second-best welterweight in the world, he erased that doubt on Saturday night. By thoroughly dominating Thiago Alves at UFC 117, Fitch firmly established…

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If there was any doubt that Jon Fitch is the second-best welterweight in the world, he erased that doubt on Saturday night. By thoroughly dominating Thiago Alves at UFC 117, Fitch firmly established himself as MMA’s best welterweight not named Georges St. Pierre.

Unfortunately for Fitch, he was beaten so badly by St. Pierre in their previous fight that there aren’t a lot of fans clamoring for a rematch. And if St. Pierre loses to Josh Koscheck in December, it’s an open question whether Fitch will even accept a title fight if it’s offered to him, since he and Koscheck are friends and training partners.

And so while UFC President Dana White has said Fitch earned the No. 1 contender position with his victory, I’m not so sure that Fitch’s next fight will be for the title. I think it’s more likely that we’re going to see Fitch put into the Octagon with someone else (maybe the Jake Shields-Martin Kampman winner) as he continues his role as the welterweight division’s permanent gatekeeper. Fitch is a great fighter, but I view him less as a No. 1 contender than as a guy who’s stuck at No. 2.

Find out how I rank the rest of the welterweight division below.

Gilbert Melendez Negotiating New Deal with Strikeforce

With the departure of Jake Shields to the UFC there’s no question that Strikeforce lost one of its top fighters, and a result, the promotion has one less guy that was in the ‘he could do some damage in the UFC’ mix. Although the Strikeforce roster isn’t littered with guys that are considered to be ‘cream […]

Josh Thomson vs Gilbert Melendez

With the departure of Jake Shields to the UFC there’s no question that Strikeforce lost one of its top fighters, and a result, the promotion has one less guy that was in the ‘he could do some damage in the UFC’ mix. Although the Strikeforce roster isn’t littered with guys that are considered to be ‘cream of the crop’ fighters, not only is the promotion’s lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez a top ten ranked dude, a lot of pundits have him in the top three. Looks like Cesar Gracie’s doing something right huh?

After cruising to a Unanimous Decision victory of Shinya Aoki in April, who’s definitely no slouch, Melendez announced that he probably wouldn’t fight again until the end of 2010 (he has a little one on the way). Well, in a recent interview with Heavy.com Melendez revealed that he’s currently in negotiations with Strikeforce, and if not for the fact that he’s the lightweight champion, “El Nino” would be a free agent..

“Technically I’m not a free agent; there is a championship clause in my contract, but I always knew if I won my four fights me and Scott, the president of Strikeforce, my boss, we’re on great terms and I know we’ll come to an agreement. I plan on being with Strikeforce for a long time if possible.”

So what you might be asking? Well, Shields was able to cruise to what everyone and their dog believes were greener pastures in the UFC, because he didn’t have a championship clause. Now while Melendez continues to say nice things about his current promotion you can’t help but wonder, if not for the championship clause, what are the chances he’d be joining his buddy Jake in the Octagon?

MMA Top 10 Middleweights: Respect for Chael Sonnen

Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, Sengoku, Rankings, MiddleweightsI didn’t think Chael Sonnen was a serious threat to Anderson Silva, didn’t think their fight would get out of the first round and didn’t think Sonnen could even come close to backing up all…

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I didn’t think Chael Sonnen was a serious threat to Anderson Silva, didn’t think their fight would get out of the first round and didn’t think Sonnen could even come close to backing up all that ridiculous trash talk he spewed in the run-up to their UFC 117 fight on Saturday night.

But while Silva did manage to pull off a fifth-round submission victory, I now believe Sonnen has to be considered the No. 2 middleweight in the world, and I also believe the next middleweight title fight should be Silva-Sonnen 2. No one had ever even come close to beating Silva in the UFC, and Sonnen had victory within his grasp on Saturday night. He deserves another chance.

You know Silva and Sonnen are the top two middleweights in the world. Find out about the rest of the Top 10 below.