Tag: main-event-campaign

[EXCLUSIVE] In Final Comment Before UFC Title Bout, Chael Sonnen *Sort Of* Reacts to Anderson Silva Cheap Shot


(The time for talk is over…but we still bugged Chael for one last quote before he rematches Anderson)

Anderson Silva can deny it all he wants, but Chael P. Sonnen has gotten inside his head. After years of Sonnen antagonizing the middleweight champion, Silva has appeared to snap emotionally.

First, “The Spider” lashed out at the challenger with threats during a recent conference call promoting their UFC 148 rematch taking place Saturday night, and then on Friday he got in Sonnen’s face at the weigh ins in Las Vegas and hit him on the chin with a shoulder strike.

“Chael no respect nothing. Chael no respect [the] UFC, Chael no respect my country,” a fired up Silva told Joe Rogan moments after weighing in and striking Chael on stage. “Tomorrow, I go to fight.”

Sonnen appeared unmoved on stage after Silva’s surprise shoulder strike, leaving his hands up and standing stone-faced. We spoke with Sonnen a couple hours after the weigh in and asked him if he’d expected Silva to do something like that after all his trash talk, and if the shoulder bump had revved him up even more to fight his nemesis.

Sonnen had received an IV to help him rehydrate and begin recovering from his twenty pound water weight loss in just twenty four hours at that point and said he that he was done talking – But not without one last golden nugget of hype before going to war tomorrow…


(The time for talk is over…but we still bugged Chael for one last quote before he rematches Anderson)

Anderson Silva can deny it all he wants, but Chael P. Sonnen has gotten inside his head. After years of Sonnen antagonizing the middleweight champion, Silva has appeared to snap emotionally.

First, “The Spider” lashed out at the challenger with threats during a recent Anderson Silva Promises to Beat Chael Sonnen So Badly It Will ‘Change the Image of the Sport’” href=”http://www.cagepotato.com/anderson-silva-promises-to-beat-chael-sonnen-so-badly-it-will-change-the-image-of-the-sport/” target=”_blank”>conference call promoting their UFC 148 rematch taking place Saturday night, and then on Friday he got in Sonnen’s face at the weigh ins in Las Vegas and hit him on the chin with a shoulder strike.

“Chael no respect nothing. Chael no respect [the] UFC, Chael no respect my country,” a fired up Silva told Joe Rogan moments after weighing in and striking Chael on stage. “Tomorrow, I go to fight.”

Sonnen appeared unmoved on stage after Silva’s surprise shoulder strike, leaving his hands up and standing stone-faced. We spoke with Sonnen a couple hours after the weigh in and asked him if he’d expected Silva to do something like that after all his trash talk, and if the shoulder bump had revved him up even more to fight his nemesis.

Sonnen had received an IV to help him rehydrate and begin recovering from his twenty pound water weight loss in just twenty four hours at that point and said he that he was done talking – But not without one last golden nugget of hype before going to war tomorrow.

In typical Sonnen form, Chael mostly ignored the specifics of our questions but laid it on thick with intensity and a colorful metaphor. “Listen to me. Please. Hell is coming to dinner and I’m coming with him,” Sonnen said.

We’re not sure what that means but damn if it doesn’t sound good and make us want to watch Sonnen take on Silva just a tiny bit more. About an hour later and just a few hours after weighing in at 185 pounds, Sonnen weighed in again privately, we are told, and had gotten back up to 204 pounds.

Life on the last day of the “Dolce Diet” may not be “fun,” and joyful as its namesake coach Mike Dolce insists (video below), but it has worked for the first half of what Sonnen needed – making weight. Saturday night we’ll get to see how well he and Silva fare against one another.

Don’t forget to read out live play-by-play blog for all the action!

– Elias Cepeda

UFC 148 Weigh-In Video: Anderson Silva Outlands Chael Sonnen 1-0 in Significant Strikes

(Video: YouTube.com/UFC)

More so than any of the punches ‘The American Gangster’ landed on the champion during their first encounter, it’s been his incessant jabs since that evening that have caused the most damage. It may have taken a couple of years of unrelenting taunts, but Chael Sonnen has finally gotten under Anderson Silva’s skin. Never underestimate the heart of a pretend champion.

Two weeks ago we saw Anderson’s cool demeanor begin to fade with promises of extreme violence against Sonnen. Things escalated on Tuesday with the champion violating Sonnen’s personal space, a press conference faux pas if ever there was one. Last night, however, the uncannily smooth Brazilian officially lost his cool, popping Sonnen with a shoulder to the face as the two squared off at the weigh-ins. I’m not sure if Brazil has area codes, but if so it’s safe to say which one Silva’s repping.

If you aren’t pumped for this fight, you’re dead inside. Actually, if you read this site, you’re probably already dead inside. So…just enjoy the fight, alright?

Full weigh-in results after the jump.

(Video: YouTube.com/UFC)

More so than any of the punches ‘The American Gangster’ landed on the champion during their first encounter, it’s been his incessant jabs since that evening that have caused the most damage. It may have taken a couple of years of unrelenting taunts, but Chael Sonnen has finally gotten under Anderson Silva‘s skin. Never underestimate the heart of a pretend champion.

Two weeks ago we saw Anderson’s cool demeanor begin to fade with promises of extreme violence against Sonnen. Things escalated on Tuesday with the champion violating Sonnen’s personal space, a press conference faux pas if ever there was one. Last night, however, the uncannily smooth Brazilian officially lost his cool, popping Sonnen with a shoulder to the face as the two squared off at the weigh-ins. I’m not sure if Brazil has area codes, but if so it’s safe to say which one Silva’s repping.

If you aren’t pumped for this fight, you’re dead inside. Actually, if you read this site, you’re probably already dead inside. So…just enjoy the fight, alright?

 

Full weigh-in results (via: MMAFrenzy.com)

  • Anderson Silva (184) vs. Chael Sonnen (185)
  • Forrest Griffin (204) vs. Tito Ortiz (204)
  • Patrick Cote (185) vs. Cung Le (185)
  • Dong Hyun Kim (170) vs. Demian Maia (170)
  • Chad Mendes (146) vs. Cody McKenzie (145)
  • Mike Easton (135) vs. Ivan Menjivar (136)
  • Fabricio Camoes (156) vs. Melvin Guillard (155 )
  • Khabib Nurmagomedov (155) vs. Gleison Tibau (155)
  • Riki Fukuda (185) vs. Constantinos Philippou (186)
  • John Alessio (156) vs. Shane Roller(155)
  • Yoislandy Izquierdo (156) vs. Rafaello Oliveira (156)

 

UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Mir — Live Main Card Results and Commentary


(Damn, Junior…give away your gameplan much? / Photo courtesy of MMAFighting.com)

After a preliminary card dominated by relatively normal-sized men — borrrrring! — we’ve finally arrived at tonight’s central theme: Big sons-of-bitches. That’s right, UFC 146‘s main card features five consecutive heavyweight fights, most of which look pretty damn entertaining on paper. Can massive underdog Frank Mir pull off Impossible Career Comeback #2, or will he succumb to the buzzsaw-like boxing of Junior Dos Santos, just like so many before him? Can Lavar Johnson score two knockouts in the same month (!), or is he in over his head — figuratively, and otherwise — against Stefan Struve? And does Roy Nelson really think he’s doing himself any favors with that ratty-ass gray beard?


(Damn, Junior…give away your gameplan much? / Photo courtesy of MMAFighting.com)

After a preliminary card dominated by relatively normal-sized men — borrrrring! — we’ve finally arrived at tonight’s central theme: Big sons-of-bitches. That’s right, UFC 146‘s main card features five consecutive heavyweight fights, most of which look pretty damn entertaining on paper. Can massive underdog Frank Mir pull off Impossible Career Comeback #2, or will he succumb to the buzzsaw-like boxing of Junior Dos Santos, just like so many before him? Can Lavar Johnson score two knockouts in the same month (!), or is he in over his head — figuratively, and otherwise — against Stefan Struve? And does Roy Nelson really think he’s doing himself any favors with that ratty-ass gray beard?

Live-blogging the UFC 146 main card for us is Anthony Gannon, who will be stacking round-by-round results after the jump starting at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Refresh the page for all the latest, and throw down your thoughts in the comments section. Thanks for being here, guys.

Well, shit. Due to a poorly timed server meltdown, we weren’t able to do the liveblog tonight; our deepest apologies. Hopefully most of you caught the pay-per-view because it was entertaining as hell, and none of the five heavyweight fights made it out of the second round. In short: Junior Dos Santos is still the UFC heavyweight champion, thanks to a dominant striking performance against Frank Mir, and Cain Velasquez made Antonio Silva‘s face look bloodier than anyone’s since Joe Stevenson. The full UFC 146 results are below; we’ll talk more tomorrow.

Main Card
Junior dos Santos def. Frank Mir via TKO, 3:04 of round 2
Cain Velasquez def. Antonio Silva via TKO, 3:36 of round 1
Roy Nelson def. Dave Herman via KO, 0:51 of round 1
Stipe Mio?i? def. Shane del Rosario via TKO, 3:14 of round 2
Stefan Struve def. Lavar Johnson via submission (armbar), 1:05 of round 1

Preliminary Card on FX
Darren Elkins def. Diego Brandao via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3)
Jamie Varner def. Edson Barboza via TKO, 3:23 of round 1
C.B. Dollaway def. Jason Miller via unanimous decision, (29-28 x 2, 30-26)
Dan Hardy def. Duane Ludwig via KO, 3:51 of round 1

Preliminary Card on Facebook
Paul Sass def. Jacob Volkmann via submission (triangle armbar), 1:54 of round 1
Glover Teixeira def. Kyle Kingsbury via submission (arm-triangle choke), 1:53 of round 1
Mike Brown def. Daniel Pineda via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3)

Classic Fight: Junior Dos Santos vs. Fabricio Werdum [VIDEO]

In advance of this weekend’s UFC 146 headlining match between Junior Dos Santos and Frank Mir, FuelTV has released video of JDS’s Octagon debut at UFC 90 in October 2008. At the time, Dos Santos was 6-1 prospect, completely unknown outside of Brazil, facing a seasoned grappling expert and PRIDE/UFC vet whose list of victims included Alistair Overeem, Alexander Emelianenko, Gabriel Gonzaga (twice) and Brandon Vera, all of whom Werdum beat by stoppage. We gave Junior zero chance to win — and he shocked us all with a earth-shaking uppercut that permanently altered the power-balance in the UFC’s heavyweight division.

Following the fight, the UFC cut Werdum after he refused to re-sign for less money, and JDS went on the greatest contender run in UFC history, culminating in a 64-second knockout of champion Cain Velasquez. Watch the video above to see how it all started, two and a half years ago.

In advance of this weekend’s UFC 146 headlining match between Junior Dos Santos and Frank Mir, FuelTV has released video of JDS’s Octagon debut at UFC 90 in October 2008. At the time, Dos Santos was 6-1 prospect, completely unknown outside of Brazil, facing a seasoned grappling expert and PRIDE/UFC vet whose list of victims included Alistair Overeem, Alexander Emelianenko, Gabriel Gonzaga (twice) and Brandon Vera, all of whom Werdum beat by stoppage. We gave Junior zero chance to win — and he shocked us all with a earth-shaking uppercut that permanently altered the power-balance in the UFC’s heavyweight division.

Following the fight, the UFC cut Werdum after he refused to re-sign for less money, and JDS went on the greatest contender run in UFC history, culminating in a 64-second knockout of champion Cain Velasquez. Watch the video above to see how it all started, two and a half years ago.

Video: ‘UFC Primetime–Dos Santos vs Mir’ Episode 2

(Video: YouTube/420FriendlyMMAFan)

We’ve still got a week to go before our heavyweight title fight at UFC 146, but all of the excitement already has people losing their damn minds. Frank Mir and Junior Dos Santos will clash to determine who is the ‘baddest man on the planet’…at least for another 3-4 months until he inevitably loses the title to the next challenger. Enough dilly-dallying, let’s get to this week’s installment of UFC Primetime.

 

“Frank was very self-destructive. Drugs, alcohol. I think Frank was pretty much intoxicated for a whole year-and-a-half of his life. It was depression and then falling into a deeper spiral.” Mir’s wife, describing his life after the motorcycle wreck that nearly ended his fighting career, which sounds uncannily like the life of most CagePotato contributors.

More highlights after the jump.


(Video: YouTube/420FriendlyMMAFan)

We’ve still got a week to go before our heavyweight title fight at UFC 146, but all of the excitement already has people losing their damn minds. Frank Mir and Junior Dos Santos will clash to determine who is the ‘baddest man on the planet’…at least for another 3-4 months until he inevitably loses the title to the next challenger. Enough dilly-dallying, let’s get to this week’s installment of UFC Primetime.

 

“Frank was very self-destructive. Drugs, alcohol. I think Frank was pretty much intoxicated for a whole year-and-a-half of his life. It was depression and then falling into a deeper spiral.” Mir’s wife, describing his life after the motorcycle wreck that nearly ended his fighting career, which sounds uncannily like the life of most CagePotato contributors.


“To be at such a mercy of others, to have sit there and ask my wife to go get me a glass of water because it was too painful to get up and go in the kitchen to get a glass of water. My back was against the wall, so I was like, you know, I’ll just go and get a job, and I’ll work, and that’s a new life now. And my wife didn’t like that. She felt that I was throwing the towel in too soon. We have to keep striving at getting this until we get it back.” Mir, making me feel bad for asking my girlfriend to get me a beer just because I’m lazy. Aaaaand, I’m over it.

 

“That’s why I take care of myself. I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t go out at night and do those stupid things, you know. I don’t like those things. I don’t need that.” Dos Santos, stating the painfully obvious.

 

“My training is very, very hard. In the sparring session we go 100%. I try to do what I’m going to do in the fight.” Dos Santos, describing his five round sparring sessions against five different men. Wait, where on earth does he find five dudes willing to spar with him throwing down at 100%?

 

“I was always a little out of place as a child, I think due to my size, I was always the biggest kid. In eighth grade I was already over 200lbs and six foot. If you are an individual or there’s something that sets you out of the pack of course you’re going to be the butt of some jokes. I remember one time in sixth grade I was getting pegged with rocks and one of them caught me pretty good in the skull. I had to go home and mom had to drive me to go get some stitches.” Mir, on being bullied in school. That’s what you get for pulling the fire alarm, Frank.

 

“Dos Santos pretty much does the same thing every fight. He’s undefeated in the UFC and he’s the current holder of the belt. But as far as tricky and surprising, I don’t think you can really put that on him. I know his footwork and his speed, it’s things that are simulatable.” Mir, once again painting a one-dimensional portrait of his opponent.

 

“I think Dos Santos wants to end it quickly, because you’ve got to be realistic. I heard his corner saying, ‘the only chance Mir has is if it goes to the ground’. Well, the only chance he has is if it doesn’t go the ground. It goes back and forth. He goes to the ground with me, he’s dead. You might as well go ahead and start calling the orthopedic surgeons and prep the room.” Mir, haven’t we been down this road before?

 

– @ChrisColemon

 

UFC 146 Shakeup: Is the New Heavyweight Lineup Better, Worse, or Much Worse?


(Let’s be honest, you’d pay to watch these three knuckleheads do *anything*.)

As Danga pointed out yesterday, injuries and surprise drug tests have led to all five of UFC 146‘s main card bouts being altered since they were first announced, which puts “Dos Santos vs. Mir” right up there with MMA’s most cursed events of all time. But let’s be fair — the UFC originally promised us ten aggressive heavyweights bashing the hell out of each other, and they’re still giving us just that. So is UFC 146 a rag-tag bunch of scab-fights, or a compelling lineup in itself? Let’s break it down…

Original main event: Junior dos Santos vs. Alistair Overeem
Current main event: Junior dos Santos vs. Frank Mir
Advantage: Even. Luckily, our schizophrenic contributor Josh Hutchinson has already presented both sides of this issue, and I’m leaning towards the idea that Mir as a main-event replacement isn’t a total disaster. At first, we had the two best heavyweight strikers in MMA slugging it out for supremacy. Now, we have…well, who knows? Mir’s brilliant ground game opens up a whole new set of outcomes for this one. And isn’t MMA at its best when it’s chaotic and unpredictable? (I know, some of you just watch for the big muscles, but I’m a true fan, okay bro?)

Original co-main event: Cain Velasquez vs. Frank Mir
Current co-main event: Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio Silva
Advantage: Original. And I only say that because Velasquez vs. Mir felt like less of a squash match. Bigfoot really could have used a softer landing in the Octagon; making his UFC debut in a pay-per-view co-main event against a juggernaut ex-champ like Velasquez smells like serious trouble for the Brazilian, who already failed a chin-test against Daniel Cormier in September.


(Let’s be honest, you’d pay to watch these three knuckleheads do *anything*.)

As Danga pointed out yesterday, injuries and surprise drug tests have led to all five of UFC 146‘s main card bouts being altered since they were first announced, which puts “Dos Santos vs. Mir” right up there with MMA’s most cursed events of all time. But let’s be fair — the UFC originally promised us ten aggressive heavyweights bashing the hell out of each other, and they’re still giving us just that. So is UFC 146 a rag-tag bunch of scab-fights, or a compelling lineup in itself? Let’s break it down…

Original main event: Junior dos Santos vs. Alistair Overeem
Current main event: Junior dos Santos vs. Frank Mir
Advantage: Even. Luckily, our schizophrenic contributor Josh Hutchinson has already presented both sides of this issue, and I’m leaning towards the idea that Mir as a main-event replacement isn’t a total disaster. At first, we had the two best heavyweight strikers in MMA slugging it out for supremacy. Now, we have…well, who knows? Mir’s brilliant ground game opens up a whole new set of outcomes for this one. And isn’t MMA at its best when it’s chaotic and unpredictable? (I know, some of you just watch for the big muscles, but I’m a true fan, okay bro?)

Original co-main event: Cain Velasquez vs. Frank Mir
Current co-main event: Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio Silva
Advantage: Original. And I only say that because Velasquez vs. Mir felt like less of a squash match. Bigfoot really could have used a softer landing in the Octagon; making his UFC debut in a pay-per-view co-main event against a juggernaut ex-champ like Velasquez smells like serious trouble for the Brazilian, who already failed a chin-test against Daniel Cormier in September.

Original main card bout #3: Roy Nelson vs. Antonio Silva
Current main card bout #3: Roy Nelson vs. Dave Herman
Advantage: Original. See above; Nelson vs. Silva made a lot of sense as a matchup, and I was looking forward to it. Plus, after his February loss to Stefan Struve, I’m not sold on Dave Herman as main-card material.

Original main card bout #2: Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Shane Del Rosario
Current main card bout #2: Stipe Miocic vs. Shane Del Rosario
Advantage: Current. Unless you’re a big Gabe Gonzaga fan (?), this match just became a lot more relevant. Miocic and Del Rosario are both undefeated up-and-comers with a combined finishing ratio of 94.7%, and the winner of this fight follows in the footsteps of Travis Browne and Lavar Johnson as the hot-shot heavyweight prospect to watch. Personally, I think Miocic is going to emerge from this one as a rising star.

Original main card bout #1: Stefan Struve vs. Mark Hunt
Current main card bout #1: Stefan Struve vs. Lavar Johnson
Advantage: Even. Look, I’m almost as depressed about Mark Hunt’s injury as Mark Hunt is. Plus, if I’m not mistaken, Struve vs. Hunt represented the greatest height differential in UFC history (13 inches!), which would have been awesome to see, just on an anthropological level. But I think we’re simply replacing one awesome Cinderella story (Hunt’s) with another just-as-good one (Johnson’s). Johnson came to the UFC riding back-to-back losses in Strikeforce, which followed nearly getting shot to death. Few expected him to make an impact in the UFC — and yet he’s already scored first-round knockouts of Joey Beltran and Pat Barry, picking up $130,000 in bonus money in the process. Now he’s re-entering the cage with just a three-week layoff between the Barry fight and this one. Do you believe in miracles?

Final analysis: If the original card was a 9 out of 10, the current card is at least a strong 7.5. Yes, we lost Alistair Overeem, and yes, we gained Dave Herman. But in terms of entertainment value, UFC 146 hasn’t given up a whole lot. Agree or disagree? (Sorry Hutchinson, you can’t do both…)

–BG