MMA | UFC Betting Sites - The Best MMA Online Bookies

UFC 129: Georges St-Pierre Needs to "Rush" Past Nick Diaz or Anderson Silva

Last Saturday, the UFC orchestrated their largest live show ever, filling the Rogers Centre in Toronto with 55,000 adoring fans screaming for fellow Canadian fighters like Georges St-Pierre, Mark Bocek, and Mark Hominick.
It was a historic night suture…

It was a historic night sutured with incredible bouts, memorable finishes and a lackluster main event defense by the sport’s premiere poster boy Canadian St-Pierre.

Once the decision was rendered after GSP’s hand was raised at the end of the fifth round, fans immediately balked at the champion’s fourth consecutive unanimous decision defense, wondering if he has what it takes to be a memorable champion.

After UFC 129 concluded, the big question mark continues to swirl above the welterweight champion’s head: where does he go next, who does he fight? It’s not Anderson Silva or Nick Diaz.

A superfight with middleweight kingpin, Anderson Silva, has be desirable for the last year, but after such an uninspiring victory over a one dimensional challenger, most pundits question whether St-Pierre would have the heart and power to deal with the Spider’s ferocious striking.

UFC president Dana White has mentioned in numerous interviews that both Silva and St-Pierre would have to collect victories at UFC 126 and 129—both have been accomplished, one more astounding than the other.

Now that both champions have disposed their respective challengers, does the UFC brass really want to send it’s cautious bread-winner to the “spider wolf” that lingers at 185 lbs?

Regardless if you think GSP’s wrestling could dictate a fight against the Brazilian or not, even in his later 30’s, Anderson possesses strength, size and striking that would cause obstacles for the smaller opponent.

In addition, timing is a factor along with the fact that St-Pierre has been hesitant about moving up to middleweight in some of his recent interviews, Zuffa boss man Lorenzo Fertitta tweeted a post-fight question asking fans if they would rather see GSP vs. Anderson or GSP vs. Nick Diaz.

Apparently, an overwhelming amount of spectators—including myself—voted for the latter.

Does the UFC really have many options at welterweight now? St-Pierre has either fought the current “contenders” already and beat them with little effort or needs to fight a cross-promotional belt holder.

As incredible as it would be to watch the lead up to a GSP vs. Nick Diaz fight, the actual fight, the finish, the post fight presser, this potential bout has its own complications as well. Once news broke of Zuffa purchasing Strikeforce, the media renzy began to speculate who from the UFC should fight who from Strikefoce.

Needless to say, there are numerous co-promotional matches that would have the intrigue to draw big numbers and make fans salivate.

Beyond having current heavyweight destroyer and champion Alistair Overeem and Cain Velasquez fight, many enthusiasts started clamoring for Diaz vs. GSP as their first choice after Jake Shields, due to Diaz’ stubborn forward movement and his ability to “not be scared.”

That’s a humorous generalization of course, but not too many challengers have solved Diaz’ stand up puzzle. Even if the fight gets to the ground, the Cesar Gracie protégée boasts a black belt in the ground art and has proven himself many times on the mat in MMA.

Unfortunately, Nick Diaz will not be GSP’s next challenger either.

Unlike a potential fight with Anderson, Diaz has contractual obligations with Showtime via Strikeforce, which Dana White has made clear the UFC has no plans of disrupting—at the moment anyways.

I’m not lawyer—god knows my wallet wishes I was—but I wouldn’t be surprised if Zuffa has a few loopholes they could exploit if they were really interested in getting fighters like Nick Diaz and Gilbert Melendez in the octagon sooner.

Let’s assume Strikeforce’s Showtime contracts have another year and the UFC doesn’t have plans to disband them as soon as possible—that means no Nick Diaz.

When discussing the possibility of Diaz or Silva, the time factor also has to be weighed into the equation. Contractually, Diaz wouldn’t be ready for another year or so and Anderson is rumored to be fighting contender Yushin Okami on the Rio card this summer.

Will the UFC really shelve St-Pierre for a year or more to wait out the other two fighters’ predicaments? I highly doubt that will happen. GSP will be fighting at least once more before the year ends. But, against who, it’s hard to say—the top regular top contenders have already been eradicated.

To avoid tedious repeats, let’s delete Jon Fitch, BJ Penn, Thiago Alves, Sean Sherk and Matt Serra. What does the welterweight division have left?

Scraping at the bottom of the welterweight barrel with Jon Fitch vs. BJ Penn 2, scrapped due to double injury, the only contender fight ready to produce a realistic challenger (I use this word loosely) is ex-WEC champion Carlos Condit vs. Dong Hyun Kim scheduled for UFC 132.

Maybe on paper, an argument could be made for Nate Marquardt vs. Anthony Johnson. Unfortunately, the favorite to win in that contest is very unlikely to face his longtime Greg Jackson training partner.

In summary, the most realistic challenger to Georges St-Pierre’s welterweight title will more than likely go to Carlos Condit.

Fans, get excited for GSP’s sixth consecutive decision defense….

_______________________________________________________

Be sure to check out Sprawl N Brawl Radio every Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT.

Also, go to the iTunes store to download any of our previous shows for free.

Register for Sprawl-N-Brawl’s new Trivia Championships at [email protected]

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Dana White Talks About the Economic Impact of the UFC in Toronto (Ontario.ca)

Tourism in Ontario has definitely taken a bit of a beating over the past decade . What with 9/11, SARS, the Avian bird flu and Justin Bieber, the list for keeping tourists out of Ontario was just getting longer and uglier by the day. But that all …

But that all ended this past weekend, when a little company, better known as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), put on a spectacular show at the Rogers Centre in downtown Toronto, providing one of the most exciting live sporting events Canadian fight fans have ever seen.

Apparently, even from the nosebleed section…

James: Hey Pat, how did you enjoy the fights at UFC 129?

Pat: James, they were amazing! I was way the f#%k up there…really! Second-last row from the back. Talk about nose bleeds! I needed oxygen climbing those steps! I must be turning into an old fat bastard!! LMAO, was worth it! Next time, better seats!

James: No problems enjoying the action from up there?

Pat: Nope, none whatsoever. The energy was freeeeeeeaking amazing!

James: Good to know. Sure beats paying $10,000 on eBay for floor seats.

[Sad, but true.]

Aside from putting on a great show this past weekend, the UFC is also predicted to have brought in anywhere in the neighbourhood (spelled the proper Canadian way with the extra “u”) of 30 to 40 million dollars of additional revenue into the province, making Toronto the No. 1 MMA market in the entire world.

Did you hear that, New York? The entire world!

Yeah…I didn’t think so.

Please enjoy this great video provided by my new friends over at Ontario.ca.

These are my opinions. If you don’t like them…I have others. You can check them out at www.mrjamesryan.com

My NEW book is now available: www.desolatewarrior.com Check it out!!!

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC News: Jose Aldo Needed Antibiotics, Says Head Trainer

During his featherweight title defense at UFC 129, Jose Aldo did not appear to be himself against his opponent, Mark Hominick. While he did successfully defend his title, there was something slightly off about the champion on this night, as he looked r…

His head trainer at Nova Uniao, Andre Pederneiras, told Sherdog.com that the Brazilian was on antibiotics for an infection he received just days prior to the event.

“He suffered a cut on his toe [on April 23] and it got infected with bacteria,” Pederneiras said.

“He went through heavy medical treatment with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory pills from Sunday to Tuesday. He took the heavy dosage so that he wouldn’t have to take more drugs closer to the fight.”

The rumors surrounding his suspected illness only grew following his fight with Hominick, when his cornerman Marion Sandro was seen criticizing Aldo after he complained about wanting to take more antibiotics.

“Antibiotics wouldn’t have helped at all,” Sandro told Aldo. “You’re the champion, kid. F–k the antibiotics. Everything is OK. You fought well, smooth and composed.”

Aldo is likely to fight much sooner following his fourth title defense, as it is expected he will square off against unbeaten featherweight Chad Mendes at UFC 133. Although another challenger could emerge at UFC 131 when Kenny Florian will make his featherweight debut against Aldo’s teammate Diego Nunes.

Pederneiras said he is aware of the possibility that both Aldo and Nunes might have to fight each other, but the Nova Uniao trainer said their potential bout is not any of his concern.

“I think it will be against Chad Mendes,” Pederneiras says of Aldo’s future opponent.

“But Diego and everyone from Nova União knows that if they have to fight against each other, they will. I just don’t know how we would manage it, but they know they’re fighters and it’s their job. If the boss orders it, we’ll work on that situation. They’ll fight against whoever they’re matched with.”

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Bruce Lee: 5 Reasons He’s the Biggest Influence in MMA

Bruce Lee is the modern grandfather of Mixed Martial Arts.There is no denying his impact on the sport—the fighters, the coaches, the fans and even its promoters. In some way or another, almost every person touched by MMA will praise Bruce Lee for…

Bruce Lee is the modern grandfather of Mixed Martial Arts.

There is no denying his impact on the sport—the fighters, the coaches, the fans and even its promoters. In some way or another, almost every person touched by MMA will praise Bruce Lee for the contributions he’s made to the form of martial arts.

But Lee would’ve been the first to tell you that the phrase “martial arts” should not be used as a means to encompass all forms; rather, to classify an ever-evolving way of training and learning.

“Styles tend to not only separate men—because they have their own doctrines and then the doctrine became the gospel truth that you cannot change. But if you do not have a style, if you just say: Well, here I am as a human being, how can I express myself totally and completely? Now, that way you won’t create a style, because style is a crystallization. That way, it’s a process of continuing growth.” – Bruce Lee

Lee’s impact on the sport was, is, and God willing forever shall be irreplicable. Here are five ways Bruce Lee most definitively changed today’s fastest growing sport in the world.

Begin Slideshow

Brock Lesnar vs. Junior dos Santos: TUF 13 on Spike TV—Alternate Announcements

Tough break for Justin Edwards; he’s informed that both coaches and Dana wanted him to be the alternate, but he’s on a 90-day suspension so he’s out. So we go through the charade of asking each eliminated competitor whether he wants the spot (they all …

Then we’re treated to an eerily cordial exchange—dare I say collaboration—between Junior dos Santos and Brock Lesnar.

Damn, fellas, where’s the animosity.

Ultimately, Chuck O’Neil and Javier Torres. Picks seem reasonable to me considering there wasn’t a huge selection of overwhelming candidates. This doesn’t sit well with Team Lesnar’s Len Bentley, who says during next week’s preview that he’ll fight that “big motherf*****” in reference to his coach.

Proving, once again, these guys might not be too bright, but they’ve sure got confidence.

Tune in next week to see how that works out for Mr. Bentley, who appears to confront Brock about the perceived sabotage.

That should be fun.

Brock Lesnar vs. JDS: TUF 13 Fighter Chuck O’Neil Blog for B/R, Episode No. 6

Welcome back for The Ultimate Fighter 13 episode six blog with Chuck “Cold Steel” O’Neil. I will get to my fight in detail a little bit later.However I wanted to start this blog off by saying I tip my hat to Zach for his performance. I fought like a…

Welcome back for The Ultimate Fighter 13 episode six blog with Chuck “Cold Steel” O’Neil. I will get to my fight in detail a little bit later.

However I wanted to start this blog off by saying I tip my hat to Zach for his performance. I fought like a meat head and eventually got caught up in my own game. I promise that what you are about to read won’t be filled with excuses, because excuses are for losers. Now, onto the episode.

This episode starts off showing the tensions building in the Team JDS locker room between assistant coach Lew Polley and JDS. It seems like this was a recurring issue on their side much like Brock’s constant nonsensical rants were on ours. The show later cuts to scenes of JDS eventually giving Lew the boot off of his team.

This was funny to me for more than one reason. First, it was interesting to see what was going on behind the scenes of their practices and the team’s overall chemistry. Being on Brock’s team we only knew our own practices and never knew any of their drama. Team JDS did a good job keeping their troubles away from us.

Second, I lost it listening to Junior give Lew the boot. For anyone who has ever met JDS they know he is one of the nicest and polite guys you will come across in life. As shown, he was even polite in telling Lew it was time to leave by making sure that his decision was okay with him.

After Dr. Clay’s (Clay Harvison) win, our team went on an instant roller coster. We were all pumped that Clay had just won and got us the control back, but at the same time he had earned himself a free trip to the ER with his remodeling job on his pinky. We immediately got into practice after Clay’s fight, where Brock had heavyweights Chris Toucher and Comprido (Rodrigo Mederios) come into the cage to work some MMA training with us.

At this point both myself and Tony felt this would be a good time to exit the cage, keeping ourselves safe from any heavyweight bodies crashing down on top of us. Good thing we did, as moments later Mr. Wildcard, Len Bentley went down with a knee injury. At this point practice was called off and all our spirits were down.

Back home we got the results of Len and Clay’s evaluations. They weren’t horrible but they weren’t good either. Due to the injury Len was prescribed pain pills which was an awful combo to go along with his already cagey attitude. He continued to grow more and more frustrated with not getting a third round in his fight and it was eating away at him. Len really isn’t a bad guy in the sense that he wouldn’t ever do anything wrong to someone or willfully hurt them.

He just honestly was going crazy from the house. Some days we could sit back and laugh at it and others he would make us nervous as to what he would do next. Nobody can understand what it’s like to be locked up in a house with 13 other guys until they have done it themselves, so I should cut him some slack.

The following day the final two fight picks were announced with Tony Ferguson taking on super tough alternate Justin Edwards, and myself vs Zach Davis. The coaches decided these would be the best two match ups style wise as they did research on both of our opponents. Brock came to myself and Tony to give us some “insight” which was that Justin has a good guillotine and Zach has a good thai clinch. Thanks Brock!

Something that might go over most people’s heads but is worth mentioning is my “what is this strong guys or somethin’?” comment during the stare-down. It all started when one of my main training partners, Josh Grispi, sent me this hilarious video

It quickly became a big hit at one of my gyms, South Shore Sportfighting, to the point where we started calling ourselves “Team Strong Guys.” I felt like I had to pay homage to it on the show somehow.

The coaches were on me and nervous about my weight. Anyone who knows me or has ever cut weight with me back home knows I’m accustomed to having rather big weight cuts. On the show I was being forced to keep my weight a lot lower than normal. I got to a point where I was under 175lbs within 12 hrs of the weigh-in, which absolutely left me in the spirit world. I cut the remaining weight after getting a little sleep and Tony did two jumping jacks, sneezed and made weight. What I would’ve given to have that weight cut….

After we weighed in Unky Brock and the coaching staff surprised us with a trip to the park out at Red Cliffs. Before we left he asked us in his best WWE voice possible “You guys feel like eating some S***??!!” and informed us that he’s going to bring us all In ‘n Out Burger. Of course I declined the offer. The vans drove us a half hour to a pretty basic park, which was a very nice change of scenery and brought us to outside people. At this point we were really starting to feel like inmates because seeing people from the outside world excited us.

I will never forget the scene of Brock pulling up to the park. He sped up, almost ran over a few members of the production crew, and parked his truck in a no parking zone. He then yells out “You guys wanna hear some F***ing music??!!”, which was not allowed during production of the show. This still cracks me up thinking of it to this day.

Following Brock’s grand entrance coach Erik Paulson showed up with a sling shot for us to play with. Of course I was the first person to get my hands on this bad boy. Unfortunately the producers were starting to get a hang of me and came running over, pleading me to not hit anyone with rocks. So…..I followed the rules and shot street signs and light posts like the little hooligan that I am.

Luckily enough not everything from this time span made its way to the episode. The hot sun along with being rehydrated and fed didn’t sit too well with me. This led to me violently puking before getting back into the van. What a great way to start my recovery process from making weight!

Onto the fight day. This was the first time this season there was a double header fight schedule as well as early afternoon fights. The schedule had Tony fighting at 12 PM and my fight was right after his. Watching this episode was the first time that I saw Tony and Justin’s fight and man did I ever miss a good fight! Those two went at it from the start of the fight. By far the most impressive first round fight.

There were so many hard punches landed clean to each of their faces and they just kept it coming. Justin came out early and was taking the fight to Tony, even scoring two take downs on the higher level wrestler. Justin seemed to be controlling the fight before Tony landed the most ridiculous strike ever landed in TUF history, thus giving Tony the most ridiculous knockout in TUF history! Dana was super impressed with both fighter’s performances and they both had good showings.

During the actual fight I was kept in the back room with Charlie Rader and Comprido. Charlie would keep coming back and forth checking in on the fight until the KO happen. Charlie came running back giving me the details of the outcome and after that everything moved really fast. Next thing I knew I was in the cage staring across from a very game Gary Busey….ughhh I mean Zach Davis.

I remember going into the fight, I had the vision of the fight being a very exciting stand up war. Zach had told me he had been to thailand, not to mention had a Vale Tudo tattoo on his leg. I was obviously left thinking this guy is going to come out swinging. Unfortunately for me I planted my feet too much, trying to dig in for a hard punch and wound up on my back within the first five seconds. I worked my way back up the cage only to continue to get pinned there, while I tried to out muscle everything and use zero technique.

Zach worked to get me back to the ground into my guard. This is usually where I feel pretty confident, however Justin gave Zach some insight on me before the fight, letting him know I have a tricky triangle. I eventually worked my way back up and through a scramble ended up on top. This is the only point where I did anything offensive and productive in the fight landing a few decent shots. They were all in vain however, as Zach jumped my shoulder and caught me up in my own game, snapping on a super fast and tight triangle. This brought on a fast tap as much long legged BJJ fighters do.

After the fight I was left pissed off and beside myself in the cage. I’m sure most could gather that through the constant bleeping out taking place. Brock was let down and Dana was impressed with Zach but surprisingly with me as well. He liked that we were going back and forth trying to finish each other on the ground. As seen, when heading back into the locker room, Dana tried telling me “good fight kid” which I wanted no part of.

I’m a very proud person and I work very hard at what I do and I don’t think I deserve praise for getting submitted in the first round. In my mind I’d just had my opportunity stripped away from me for the second time and again I had no control over the matter.

Minutes after the last two fights, the producers took the seven losing fighters into Dana’s office one by one. In his office both Brock, JDS and Dana were waiting to hear us all out. Now on the episode Dana said nobody really showed they wanted the wild card slot all that much. I know from my end I had told Dana, after he told me I had a good performance again, that if given the opportunity to fight again I won’t let him down. I will show him how I really fight and he will then be truly impressed.

After the meeting with Dana I 100% thought it would be alternate vs alternate for the wild card spot because Dana was pumped about myself and Justin’s fight . Unfortunately for Justin he was having the worst luck ever that day and was suspended for the KO.

Brock brought up the match up of myself vs Len Bentley for the wild card fight. He made it sound like if we were to fight Len would beat me quite easily. I was a lot bigger than Len and there wasn’t much he was able to do to me in practice, but I suppose Brock had to support his number one pick.

Talking to Len afterwards he admitted that his knee wasn’t ready to go at that point. It was pretty funny watching Len talk to Dana. He just seemed completely out of it, living on a different planet. He was pretty nonchalant about wanting the wild card spot. Not especially enthusiastic, and if anything cocky because he thought he had it in the bag.

Luckily enough for me both coaches along with Dana saw something in me that they wanted to see more of. I was granted my now third chance at this competition going from alternate, to losing, to getting the wild card slot. I will be fighting the very tough Javier Torres on next weeks episode to see who moves onto the quarterfinals. This is all great news besides the fact I had to make weight and fight four days after my fight that I just had with Zach.

That does it for this weeks blog. Make sure to tune in and buckle up for next weeks episode as the rest of the season is going to be very entertaining! Make sure to check back next week for the episode seven blog with the new look Chuck “Cold Steel” O’Neil!

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com