(photo via UFC.com)
It took 1:04 for the “Fireball Kid” Takanori Gomi to prove to the mma world that his debut loss was more nerves than a decline in his ability to fight as he became the first fighter to finish Tyson Griffin in the octagon. Gomi unleashed a heavy right hand after countering a […]
It took 1:04 for the “Fireball Kid” Takanori Gomi to prove to the mma world that his debut loss was more nerves than a decline in his ability to fight as he became the first fighter to finish Tyson Griffin in the octagon. Gomi unleashed a heavy right hand after countering a leg kick, which sent Griffin to the mat forcing the stoppage in the first round.
Backstage, Gomi talked about the fight unsure of whether Griffin became overconfident after the opening exchanges and whether the victory held any meaning for Japanese fighters overall, which many critics have said is on a decline when compared to fighters coming from North America.
With the victory, the “Fireball Kid” hopes to eventually warrant a title shot one day but will concentrate on his next fight first.
“One thing (Tyson Griffin) is in really good shape. I’ve seen some of his fights so I know a little bit of his training, so he came in pretty good shape. He had reason to be confident but I don’t know if he got overconfident. I threw a couple of things around his chest, didn’t seem to phase him too much. It could be that’s when he got into this ‘Hey this guy can throw all he wants and I can take it.’ So a little bit into the bout he might have bit off more then he could chew.
“I don’t know that I necessarily am singlehandedly am going to turn the reputation of Japanese fighters around. I don’t know that I really have to, you’ve got (Yushin) Okami out there fighting tonight, I have every reason to believe he is going to win. Man he’s been a good fighter for a long time.
“I don’t see it as my mission to win people over to Japanese fighters. Like the fighters here I see my mission getting the fans excited showing them a good time. If they come to think ‘Hey, Japanese fighters are worth paying the money to see too,’ that’s fine. ‘Course I wouldn’t mind winning a championship sometime in there.
“Eventually, I want to get to the champion, I’m just so excited that his name alludes me, it’s not that I don’t have respect for him. When I get to him, there’s a few people, Kenny Florian, BJ (Penn) is another guy. I think I’m getting ahead of myself here, what I really wanna do now is go back and train and get really into top shape before I take on anybody it’s kind of one fight at a time.”
UFC middleweight Alan Belcher (16-6) made the announcement on Sunday that he was withdrawing from his main event bout against Demian Maia at the “UFC Fight Night: Maia vs. Belcher” event scheduled for September 15.
Belcher made the announcement on his Twitter account, noting that he suffered a detached retina and has already undergone surgery to […]
UFC middleweight Alan Belcher (16-6) made the announcement on Sunday that he was withdrawing from his main event bout against Demian Maia at the “UFC Fight Night: Maia vs. Belcher” event scheduled for September 15.
Belcher made the announcement on his Twitter account, noting that he suffered a detached retina and has already undergone surgery to repair the eye.
While I was in brazil I started losing my vision in my right eye. I saw a dr that told me to go back to us immediately. My friend/surgeon from biloxi got me an emergency surgery scheduled in alabama now just trying to recover. No contact for 6 weeks. Sorry to my trainers. Sorry to ufc & demian Maia, I know he has been training specifically for me. Sorry to my fans as well. As long as I get released from dr I will try to make ufn 22 to see my fans and watch the fights
Belcher has currently won his last two fights defeating Patrick Côté at UFC 113 by submission (rear-naked choke) and Wilson Gouveia by TKO in December in a 195 pound catchweight bout at UFC 107.
Maia is looking to rebound from a loss against middleweight champ Anderson Silva at UFC 112 and earn a second shot at the title. He’s 1-2 in his past three having defeated Dan Miller in February at UFC 109 via unanimous decision.
No word yet on a replacement for Belcher at the event, but The MMA News will keep our readers posted.
“Fight Night” bonuses were handed down to Takanori Gomi, Charles Oliveira, Brian Stann and Mike Massenzio for their efforts on Sunday night at the UFC on Versus 2 event. Each fighter was awarded a $40,000 bonus.
“Knockout of the Night” was awarded to Gomi, the “Submission of the Night” was given to Oliveira, and the […]
“Fight Night” bonuses were handed down to Takanori Gomi, Charles Oliveira, Brian Stann and Mike Massenzio for their efforts on Sunday night at the UFC on Versus 2 event. Each fighter was awarded a $40,000 bonus.
“Knockout of the Night” was awarded to Gomi, the “Submission of the Night” was given to Oliveira, and the “Fight of the Night” was earned by Stann and Massenzio.
It took the “Fireball Kid” 1:04 seconds to end his fight against Tyson Griffin in the opening bout of the Versus broadcast to earn the “Knockout of the Night” honor. Griffin was caught with a right hook that sent him to the mat, he was quick to protest the stoppage but it was very evident that he had been rocked and the right call had been made.
Oliveria made a big splash with the UFC in his promotional debut by quickly submitting fellow lightweight Darren Elkins at 41 seconds of the first round to win the “Submission of the Night” honor.
The winners of the “Fight of the Night” honor, Stann and Massenzio faced one another on the preliminary card of the event. Both men traded the first two rounds winning one each before Stann managed to succeed with a triangle-choke at 3:10 of the third round to earn the victory.
Recent UFC welterweight castoff Paul “Semtex” Daley (24–9–2) will reportedly sign a six-fight deal with the Strikeforce promotion with the next day or two.
The news was first broke by MiddleEasy.com who first reported that the fighter had already signed with Strikeforce and has his first opponent.
Just hours ago, Paul Daley signed a six-fight Strikeforce contract. […]
Recent UFC welterweight castoff Paul “Semtex” Daley (24–9–2) will reportedly sign a six-fight deal with the Strikeforce promotion with the next day or two.
The news was first broke by MiddleEasy.com who first reported that the fighter had already signed with Strikeforce and has his first opponent.
Just hours ago, Paul Daley signed a six-fight Strikeforce contract. He will still fight at Shark Fights 13 which will go down September 11th at the Civic Center Coliseum in Amarillo, Texas (sort of a strange date to have an MMA event). His first opponent will be Evangelista Cyborg which denotes that he will still be competing at welterweight.
USA TODAY’s Sergio Non say’s not so fast, posting a message on Twitter noting that he spoke to Strikeforce’s Mike Afromowitz who said that Daley isn’t signed just yet. Afromowitz is the director of communications for the Strikeforce promotion.
Just got off phone with Strikeforce’s Afromowitz, who says Daley isn’t signed yet, though the company expects it Monday or Tuesday.
Daley was released by the UFC after his co-main event bout with Josh Koscheck at UFC 113 in Montreal. He punched Koscheck in the head well after the bell sounded to end the third round. The British striker then went on to defeat Daniel Acacio via submission (elbow) last month at the Impact FC 2 – The Uprising: Sydney show in Australia. He is currentlyl scheduled to fight for the Shark Fights promotion on September 11th at their Shark Fights 13 event against an as-of-yet to be named opponent.
UFC light-heavyweight Krzysztof Soszynski answered fan questions at Saturday’s UFC Fight Club Q&A session in San Diego, a warm up for the UFC on Versus 2 weigh-ins. Soszynski was asked how he’d feel about facing Rich “Ace” Franklin in the octagon.
To check out more of Soszynski, and fellow Q&A co-host of the day Mike […]
UFC light-heavyweight Krzysztof Soszynski answered fan questions at Saturday’s UFC Fight Club Q&A session in San Diego, a warm up for the UFC on Versus 2 weigh-ins. Soszynski was asked how he’d feel about facing Rich “Ace” Franklin in the octagon.
To check out more of Soszynski, and fellow Q&A co-host of the day Mike Goldberg’s comments visit AcesWildMMA Youtube page.
Looking to recover from the debacle that was the “Shine Fights 3: Worlds Collide” event, Brazilian fighter Alexandre Ferreira has issued an open challenge to all light-heavyweights in the sport of mixed martial arts. The MMA News had the chance to interview “Cacareco” recently when he was expecting to face Jamal “The Suit” Patterson […]
Looking to recover from the debacle that was the “Shine Fights 3: Worlds Collide” event, Brazilian fighter Alexandre Ferreira has issued an open challenge to all light-heavyweights in the sport of mixed martial arts. The MMA News had the chance to interview “Cacareco” recently when he was expecting to face Jamal “The Suit” Patterson at the Shine Fights event. You can check out the interview by clicking the LINK.
Press Release
When Alexandre Ferreira left his comfortable home at the luta livre-based Brazilian Top Team in 2008, he thought his MMA career was over. He hadn’t trained for eight months, and the five-foot-seven, 205-pound bull of a fighter was ready to call it quits after a decade in the sport. On a whim, he made his cell phone number public to trainers and promoters alike, hoping that he may get one last shot at a small camp that would allow him to finish his career on his own terms.
Much to his surprise, Cacareco’s phone rang just two days later, and on the other end was a man that he never imagined would call. Rudimar Fedrigo, the leader of BTT rival Chute Boxe, wanted Ferreira on his team. Just years earlier, Cacareco had been deeply entrenched in the rivalry between the luta livre specialists at BTT and the Muay Thai fighters at Chute Boxe when a brawl broke out between him and Chute Boxe member Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos after one of his two wins over Chute Boxe members.
“This invitation from Rudimar was a great lesson in my life,” Ferreira said at the time of his transition to Chute Boxe. “We can’t be arrogant because life is like a big circle. In the most difficult moment of my career, it was the person who I expected least that offered his hand and invited me to be part of this team.”
Now two years older and with two more impressive victories under his belt, the 30-year-old is ready to make a big impact in mixed martial arts. Already a favorite of hardcore fans who followed him through his up-and-down career in the early days of the sport, Cacareco now looks to continue his impressive journey through a sport that was illegal in most of the United States when he found it.
The Rio de Janeiro, Brazil native started his career with a willingness to fight anybody at anytime, and his record showed the battles that he had been through. After beginning his career with a disqualification loss, Ferreira went on an eight-fight win streak, including two impressive showings in the no holds barred World Vale Tudo Championships that saw him win the one-night tournament once and then nearly win a second time before being injured. The eight-fight win streak for the then 21-year-old Ferreira saw him earn victories over the likes of PRIDE veterans Heath Herring, “Dirty” Bob Schrijber, and Shannon Ritch, making him one of the hottest prospects in the sport.
Cacareco then went to Japan in the RINGS organization, but back-to-back losses to Hiromitsu Kanehara and Chris Haseman started a four-fight win losing streak that dropped the Brazilian’s record to a middling 8-5 overall. But since losing to Miquel de Souza in 2004, Cacareco has gone on an impressive streak that has saw him win ten of his past eleven fights, with all ten victories coming via submission in the first round. Perhaps even more impressive, however, is his seven fight win streak dating back to 2007. In the seven fights, Cacareco has spent just a total of nine minutes in the ring, including stopping four of his opponents in less than a minute.
The dominant streak earned the highly respected fighter a call from the UFC, where he was offered a fight with former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida. The top-ranked fighter declined to fight the fast-rising prospect. Machida instead faced another Brazilian in Thiago Silva, who he easily defeated en route to earning a title shot and becoming a seemingly unbeatable champion. All of that is not lost on Cacareco, who would still like to fight the former world champion. “It would be a very hard fight for him,” Cacareco said. “My style would make him confused. He knew I would take him down and submit him, for sure.”
A brilliant wrestler who went undefeated in more than sixty wrestling matches as an amateur, Cacareco brings a dominant well-rounded grappling style to mixed martial arts that has rarely been seen before. With one of the most impressive double leg takedowns in the game, Ferreira never has much trouble getting a fight into his realm.
After signing with fast-rising Shine Fights late in 2009, Cacareco was quick to disclose his goals in his new home: “I want to be the champion,” he stated simply. “I don’t want to know who [to fight], I just want to know when.” Unfortunately for Ferreira, his scheduled fight at the organization’s May event was cancelled at the last minute, leaving him to wonder once again where to go next.
To make things worse, Cacareco has still not been paid what he was promised after the cancellation of the Shine event. Regardless, the well-rounded fighter is ready to move on and is willing to fight any fighter in the world at 185 or 205 pounds.
Fighting in the United States has always been a goal of Ferreira, who has said once again that he’ll face anybody at anytime and in any place: “Lately, I have no idea how many times I had to answer the following questions: Why aren´t you fighting for a big event and what famous names in the game do you think you would beat?,” Cacareco said.
“The answer to the first question is hard, because it doesn’t depend only on me. I believe that I have what it takes to be in any show in the world. The answer to the second question is not that difficult: after seeing some light-heavy-weights that are in the best shows, I can say, with no doubts in my mind that I would do well against most of them. I have a unique way of fighting, I can go toe-to-toe with anybody and, as soon as I lay my hands on them, they know they will get submitted.”
“Since Lyoto [Machida] refused to face me in the UFC, people love when I tell them the names of fighters I´d submit. So, for starters, Gegard Mousasi would be a good name. I was offered to fight him last event [at DREAM], but it seems like he preferred to have an easier opponent, somebody who couldn’t even make weight. From the UFC Tito Ortiz, Forrest Griffin, Rashad Evans, Keith Jardine, Stephan Bonnar, and all those fighters that come from The Ultimate Fighter reality show; Jon Jones, King Mo, Jeff Monson, Dan Henderson, well, there are so many names out there that it’s too hard to mention, and I’m just listing fighters at 205, because light heavyweight is the division I want to focus on right now.”
(photo via UFC.com)
