Until we can confirm this report with one of the fighters themselves, treat it as a rumor for now. We’ve contacted Koch’s manager, Mike Roberts of MMA Inc., but have yet to receive a response. Stay tuned.
Until we can confirm this report with one of the fighters themselves, treat it as a rumor for now. We’ve contacted Koch’s manager, Mike Roberts of MMA Inc., but have yet to receive a response. Stay tuned.
As reported on MMAWeekly.com this morning, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Cheick Kongo have been added to the UFC 149 fight card that will take place in Calgary on July 21.The Calgary Sun cited anonymous sources in announcing the news, but the fight was …
As reported on MMAWeekly.com this morning, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Cheick Kongo have been added to the UFC 149 fight card that will take place in Calgary on July 21.
The Calgary Sun cited anonymous sources in announcing the news, but the fight was verified via the UFC Canada Official Twitter feed. The announcement came on the same day that UFC President Dana White hinted that Brazilian featherweight Champion Jose Aldo would most likely be pulled form that same card.
Aldo was originally announced as the headliner for the debut Calgary event with a challenger to be named later. The UFC announced via press conference yesterday that the Silva-Sonnen rematch that was tentatively set for UFC 147 in Brazil will now take place at UFC 148 in Las Vegas. This move leaves a big hole on the Brazil card, and many feel it will be filled by Aldo.
Nogueira (33-7-1) is currently recovering from a broken humorous he suffered after refusing to tap to a kimura lock in his last fight with Frank Mir at UFC 140 in December of 2011. Nogueira has had a tough time in the UFC with a 4-3 record.
Kongo (17-7-2) is also coming off a loss via TKO to Mark Hunt at UFC 144 in Japan.
If the Aldo fight is indeed moved off the Calgary card, the Canadian fans could be in for a very nice replacement as White has already mentioned that Jon Jones vs. Dan Henderson is the leading candidate to fill that slot.
UFC 149 Fight card To Date: (Subject to Change)
Thiago Alves vs Yoshihiro Akiyama – welterweight
George Roop vs *Antonio Carvalho – featherweight
*Nick Ring vs Court McGee – middleweight
Bryan Caraway vs *Mitch Gagnon – featherweight
*Mitch Clarke vs Anton Kuivanen – lightweight
Cheick Kongo vs Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
* Canadian Fighter
Dwight Wakabayashi is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA, MMA Editor at CKSN.ca and guest blogger for Sportsnet.ca.
Take this tidbit from Edgar’s interview with MMAFighting, for instance, in which he says that the drop to 145 is “inevitable”, especially if Aldo’s name comes up:
We’ll see what the future holds, but I think it’s inevitable that I’ll eventually get down there. I just don’t know when. I’m all about fighting big fights, and fighting the best guys, and Jose Aldo’s one of them. We’ll see where it’s at, whether it’s at 145 or 155.
Considering that Edgar has never even shown a slight interest in dropping to 145, that’s all the confirmation we’re going to need. Start making your picks, ’cause this shit is going down.
More from the interview awaits you after the jump.
(Don’t worry, Frankie, there will be plenty more where that came from.)
Take this tidbit from Edgar’s interview with MMAFighting, for instance, in which he says that the drop to 145 is “inevitable”, especially if Aldo’s name comes up:
We’ll see what the future holds, but I think it’s inevitable that I’ll eventually get down there. I just don’t know when. I’m all about fighting big fights, and fighting the best guys, and Jose Aldo’s one of them. We’ll see where it’s at, whether it’s at 145 or 155.
Considering that Edgar has never even shown a slight interest in dropping to 145, that’s all the confirmation we’re going to need. Start making your picks, ’cause this shit is going down.
But lo and behold, Edgar is still holding strong to his claims that a rematch Henderson will happen in the near future, stating “I was set on getting this belt back. We don’t know what the future holds, but I didn’t want to go down on those terms.” A clever ruse to make DW’s announcement seem all the more surprising? We think so. Don’t be fooled by the red herrings, Dana White is going to make Edgar an offer he can’t refuse, and Edgar is eventually going to cave beneath the almighty power of The Baldfather’s fist. We all have.
Let’s face it; the time for Edgar to make his move is now. We can debate all day about how close his fight with Henderson was and how one loss doesn’t mean he should drop a weight class and blah blah blah, but there’s no doubt that the majority of us would rather see him fight Aldo then rematch Henderson. Yes, their fight at UFC 144 was pretty awesome, but Edgar took a beating, like he has in nearly all of his fights at lightweight. For his safety alone, Edgar shouldn’t be fighting guys that outweigh him by 20 pounds come fight night just to prove a point. If “The Answer” wants his UFC career to last for as long as possible, he should start cutting to 145 and taking on guys his own size. Edgar knows it, and he told MMAFighting that so does Dana White:
[Dana] stressed that he thinks for the longevity of my career, 145 would be better. I told him I could see what points he was talking about, but right now I wanted the rematch, so he granted it.
Now there you go again with the rematch nonsense, Frankie. Look, we understand that you want your rematch, and rightfully so, but just think of what happens if your were to lose this one again. The drop to 145 would be next, now not by choice, but out of a need to save your career. And although this has worked out great for guys like Brian Stann and Tim Boetsch, it could be disastrous for you. Look at it this way; if you were to accept the Aldo fight now and lose, then the 155 pound division would still welcome you back. Write it off as a failed experiment ala Joe Warren and say that you felt weak or slow at featherweight. We’d eat it up like a crayfish dinner and still clamor that you deserve your rematch with Henderson. Despite DW’s insistence, you could call lightweight home for the time being.
Now let’s look at the other side of the coin. Say you lose to Henderson twice and then Aldo (granted you made it to a title shot unscathed), where do you go from there? Before you can even leave the arena, you’re written off as the Jon Fitch of not one, but two weight classes. You try to drop to 135 shortly thereafter, but show up over 20 pounds heavy for your debut and are subsequently released by the UFC. You take a couple fights under local promotions to get back into the big show, but unfortunately run into the next lightweight prodigy, who promptly beats your name out of existence. Desperate for the cash to support your now bloated lifestyle, you begin to pedal drugs on the street, until the day arrives that you get caught selling crack to an undercover police officer.
And when you find yourself cuffed in the backseat of the squad car next to a 350 lb man with not one, but two wallet chains and a tattoo of his mother with her eyes scratched out, you will know that you have truly hit rock bottom. All as a result of your stubbornness and pride. Take the fight with Aldo, Frankie. Take it for your own good.
So I ask unto you, Potato Nation, how do you think Edgar would fare against Aldo? And on the outside chance that Edgar won’t be the man to face Aldo at UFC 147, who would you like to pair him against for his featherweight debut? Granted, this is all dependent on whether or not Frankie is able to best Bendo in their rematch, but speculation is what we thrive in here at CP, so let’s strike while the iron’s hot. Or at least lukewarm.
On Tuesday morning, Dana White, Chael Sonnen and the middleweight champion Anderson Silva were all in Brazil for a press conference about UFC 147.But the biggest news from the press conference was something that had been rumored for about two week…
On Tuesday morning, Dana White, Chael Sonnen and the middleweight champion Anderson Silva were all in Brazil for a press conference about UFC 147.
But the biggest news from the press conference was something that had been rumored for about two weeks now: the necessity to move the fight from Brazil to Las Vegas due to scheduling conflicts.
However, there was more than just that news to come out of the presser, so let’s take a look at all the stories from the UFC 147 press conference in Brazil.
At UFC 117, the MMA world saw Anderson Silva vulnerable for the first time in his UFC career.For four and a half rounds, he was dominated from pillar to post by Chael Sonnen, who not only out-wrestled the champion, but out-struck him as well. It was a …
At UFC 117, the MMA world saw Anderson Silva vulnerable for the first time in his UFC career.
For four and a half rounds, he was dominated from pillar to post by Chael Sonnen, who not only out-wrestled the champion, but out-struck him as well. It was a Hail Mary triangle choke that forced Sonnen to tap and saved Anderson Silva’s title reign. Chael Sonnen’s performance was unfortunately tainted when his post-fight drug test came back for elevated levels of testosterone.
While serving his one year suspension, Sonnen became something of a media darling because of his ability to cut a promo. For an entire year, Sonnen would tell anyone and everyone who would listen about how he was the real middleweight champion and that Anderson Silva would never survive “the mean streets of West Linn, Oregon.”
Finally, after two years of waiting, Chael Sonnen would get another shot at the champion. He’d be traveling to Silva’s backyard and fight in front of a rowdy Brazilian crowd at UFC 147.
The UFC, to their credit, recognized how big of a fight this could be for the South American nation and intended to hold the fight at a soccer stadium.
Unfortunately, plans began to fall through when the United Nations scheduled a conference the very same weekend. Not only would there be a ton of security in town for all of the diplomats, but there were also concerns that the country’s infrastructure wouldn’t be able to accommodate both the UN and UFC.
Following UFC on Fuel 2, UFC President Dana White confirmed to the attending media that the card was in jeopardy.
Rumors of the fight being moved to UFC 148 soon followed.
Today, the UFC confirmed that the fight had in fact been moved to UFC 148 in Las Vegas. The fight will headline one of the deepest cards in recent history which also features a bantamweight title fight between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber as well as Tito Ortiz’ last fight ever.
UFC 147 will still go on at a yet to be named venue in Brazil with Vitor Belfort vs Wanderlei Silva in the main event. Jose Aldo is also expected to fight on that card.
For months since his UFC lightweight championship loss to Ben Henderson, Frankie Edgar has had to contend with voices telling him to drop to 145 lbs. Now, for the first time, Edgar has hinted that he would go down a weight class and fight Jose Aldo for…
For months since his UFC lightweight championship loss to Ben Henderson, Frankie Edgar has had to contend with voices telling him to drop to 145 lbs. Now, for the first time, Edgar has hinted that he would go down a weight class and fight Jose Aldo for the featherweight title.
“We’ll see what the future holds, but I think it’s inevitable that I’ll eventually get down there,” MMA Fighting reported Edgar as saying. “I just don’t know when.”
Edgar lost his title in a gruelling five-round decision to Henderson at UFC 145 in February. Since that fight, UFC president Dana White has said that he would like to see Edgar drop to featherweight and fight for the title there.
Edgar is a small lightweight and looks dwarfed by his opponents in almost all his fights. During his fight against Henderson, it looked as though two weight divisions separated the fighters, with Edgar at 5’6”—three inches smaller than Henderson.
It was a similar story in his match against a 5’8” Gray Maynard. In both those fights, Edgar was battered and bullied over five rounds and it was only though his now legendary resilience that he was able to defeat Maynard.
It is this ability Edgar possesses to fight and defeat much larger opponents that led to Dana White to call him the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
However, his loss to Henderson exposed his weaknesses at that weight class. These matches against the current crop of lightweights are gruelling and dropping to 145 lbs against opponents much closer to his size wouldn’t be too difficult for Edgar.
“I’m all about fighting big fights and fighting the best guys, and Jose Aldo’s one of them,” he said. “We’ll see where it’s at, whether it’s at 145 or 155.”
Right now Edgar still has work to do in lightweight. His rematch against Henderson has been confirmed, although when and where is still unknown.
As reported on 