Tag: MMA

UFC 129 Results: Farewell to Randy Couture

Randy Couture left Saturday’s night fight a loser by one of the best knockouts so far this year. A “Crane Kick” from the Karate Kid himself, Lyoto Machida, sent him into early retirement and left many with a bad image of Couture in his final fight. For…

Randy Couture left Saturday’s night fight a loser by one of the best knockouts so far this year. A “Crane Kick” from the Karate Kid himself, Lyoto Machida, sent him into early retirement and left many with a bad image of Couture in his final fight.

For anyone who saw Couture for the first time on Saturday night, you have missed out on one of the most storied careers in MMA history. Couture stands as a symbol for longevity in the sport of MMA. He proved that, no matter the age, you could still contend for a title and beat big name fighters.

Couture defied Father Time and led a great career until he was 47 years old (almost 48 as his birthday is in June). Couture even started his career at a time when most fighters today start thinking about retirement.

Couture started at age 34 at UFC 13. Since then, he has brought forth some of the best moments in UFC.

First, there’s Couture’s huge upset over Tim Sylvia who out-sized Couture and was battling for the UFC heavyweight crown.

Of course Captain America pulled off the huge upset over Sylvia. Couture came out and beat Sylvia all over with his striking. Not to mention, this was Couture’s first fight at heavyweight in almost five years. On top of that, he was returning from a yearlong retirement.

Couture defied the odds throughout his entire career. He had numerous upsets, displays of toughness and just flat out brilliant performances that just seemed to make everyone love him and want to watch the great Randy Couture even more.

Even more recently, in a fight against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Couture was able to survive and escape a choke from Big Nog and give him everything he could muster to make Big Nog’s victory only that more well earned. Even in this unanimous decision loss, Couture proved you can’t count him out no matter what—even at the age of 46.

Couture will now be walking out of the Octagon as one of the most beloved fighters in UFC history. One of two fighters to ever hold a belt in two different weight classes in the UFC. The man who showed James Toney that MMA is a tough sport like boxing.

The man, the myth, the legend walks away from the UFC as one of the all-time legends for the promotion. 

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UFC 129 Video: Watch Georges St-Pierre Handle the Creepiest Fan Question Ever

Anyone who has ever attended or watched a UFC event press conference can tell you stories of pointless, uneducated, disrespectful or downright offensive questions that have been asked.But during the UFC 129 press conference, a new bar has officially be…

Anyone who has ever attended or watched a UFC event press conference can tell you stories of pointless, uneducated, disrespectful or downright offensive questions that have been asked.

But during the UFC 129 press conference, a new bar has officially been set for awkwardness.

A woman in the audience who was asking a question was also holding a UFC action figure (which she referred to as a “doll”) of the welterweight champ. The question started off normal until it veered off into unfamiliar territory.

“What’s the most offensive thing you’ve ever heard of a woman doing to one of your dolls?”

Laughing as he tried to sidestep this obviously ridiculous question, St-Pierre asked to see the figure. That’s when things got even weirder.

“I’ve done things to it, Georges…”

Still no word on why no one stepped in to save the champion from this unbelievable creep, but it definitely showed that the UFC does not screen their questions.

Anything can happen in the UFC cage, and apparently at the press conferences as well!

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Georges St-Pierre: Trainer Talks About Moving Up to Face Anderson Silva at 185

The big question that has been circulating through the MMA world as of late is this: will there ever be a “superfight” between UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva?St-Pierre has often deflected the qu…

The big question that has been circulating through the MMA world as of late is this: will there ever be a “superfight” between UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva?

St-Pierre has often deflected the question by stating the leap from the 170-pound division to the 185-pound division would require a complete reorientation of his career.

Following his win over Jake Shields at UFC 129, St-Pierre was once again asked if the fight with Silva was going to happen, “We’ll see,” he told UFC commentator Joe Rogan. “I just finished my fight. I haven’t considered that yet. Going up in weight class is a lot to consider. Maybe there are other ways. We’ll talk.”

While St-Pierre’s responses have seemed a bit evasive, his camp has pondered how they would prepare their fighter to make the jump to the middleweight division.

Firas Zahabi, St-Pierre’s trainer, recently spoke to ESPN regarding how the camp would accomplish the move. Surprisingly, Zahabi would not recommend adding size to St-Pierre’s frame, “If he goes up, I would recommend he stay the same size,” said Zahabi. “You don’t want Georges to go in there bulked up and unable to perform in the mechanical way that he does.”

“He’ll be very small for a middleweight,” Zahabi continued. “If I balloon him up to over 200 pounds, it won’t do any good. There’s a point where you can have too much muscle, and it’s not a good thing. I think he’s got the maximum amount you can put on his body without it starting to be detrimental.”

“I’d probably push him up to 200 pounds for that fight,” Zahabi said. “He still wouldn’t be as big as Anderson and it wouldn’t be natural, but it would be better. If you do get on Anderson Silva, having an extra pounds on you is good.”

Zahabi revealed that the target weight for a re-hydrated St-Pierre in his bout with Shields was between 192 and 193 pounds.

The fight between St-Pierre and Silva remains a “fantasy fight,” according to UFC president Dana White. Silva’s next opponent will be Yushin Okami at UFC 134 in Rio on August 27. If Silva gets past Okami and St-Pierre’s scheduled remains open, the “superfight” talk will most likely reach a fever pitch.

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UFC 131: Will Steven Seagal Teach Junior Dos Santos How to Behead Brock Lesnar?

It would be fair to say that not everyone is sure what to make of Steven Seagal and his relationship to Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida and the rest of team Black House MMA (which includes Junior dos Santos, Jose Aldo, the Nogueira brothers and other gre…

It would be fair to say that not everyone is sure what to make of Steven Seagal and his relationship to Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida and the rest of team Black House MMA (which includes Junior dos Santos, Jose Aldo, the Nogueira brothers and other great Brazilian fighters).

There are a lot of things that we don’t know, but what we do know is that–at least on the surface–both Silva and Machida are crediting Seagal with their head kick K.O. finishes of Vitor Belfort and Randy Couture, respectively.

Speaking with UOL Esportes (courtesy of Fighters Only), the action movie actor promised that both fighters will surprise opponents with other techniques in the near future.

“I’m training other types of kicks, knees, elbows and strikes with them and I am also training their footwork. You have to wait for the new things which we’re working out,” he says.

Seagal revealed he has been training with other athletes from the Black House team but the actor would rather not to speak about details of the trainings, “I’m teaching other fighters but it is something secret,” he concluded.

While many in the MMA community are poking fun at any significance Seagal could in fact bring to the table, third time’s a trend. Next up for team Black House MMA is Junior Dos Santos who will face Brock Lesnar in the Octagon at UFC 131, June 11.

While Dos Santos is known more for his boxing prowess, do not put it past the hard hitting heavyweight to try something flashy. Dos Santos released this video of him perfecting the Anthony Pettis “Showtime kick” and he actually looked surprisingly dexterous in doing so.  

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UFC 130 Fight Card Video: Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard III Extended Trailer

UFC 130 will take place on May 28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight card will be headlined by a UFC lightweight title fight between the champion Frankie Edgar and challenger Gray Maynard. The two met in a championship b…

UFC 130 will take place on May 28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

The fight card will be headlined by a UFC lightweight title fight between the champion Frankie Edgar and challenger Gray Maynard. The two met in a championship bout on January 1 of this year that ended with Edgar retaining his title due to the fight being scored as a majority draw.

Edgar and Maynard had met earlier in their careers as well, fighting on a UFC card in 2008, with Maynard taking a unanimous decision victory.

Also appearing on the card will be a light heavyweight battle between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Matt Hamill. This fight could develop into somewhat of a grudge match as the fighters and their camps have been exchanging barbs since Hamill was moved into replace Thiago Silva after questions arose regarding Silva’s UFC 125 urine test.

The main card, which will be broadcast on pay-per-view will be rounded out with the following fights:

Frank Mir vs Roy Nelson

Stefan Struve vs Travis Brown

Brian Stann vs Jorge Santiago

Two preliminary card fights will be broadcast on Spike TV:

Thiago Alves vs Rick Story

Miguel Torres vs Demetrious Johnson

Three other preliminary card fights are currently not scheduled to be broadcast:

Kendall Grove vs. Tim Boetsch

Cody McKenzie vs. Bart Palaszewski

Renan Barão vs. Cole Escovedo

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UFC 129 Video: Georges St-Pierre vs Jake Shields UFC 129 Highlights

Georges St-Pierre met Jake Shields on Saturday, April 30 at UFC 129 and has been the case in many of his title defenses as of late, the UFC welterweight champion exploited the weakness in his opponent’s game to retain his UFC title.Going into the fi…

Georges St-Pierre met Jake Shields on Saturday, April 30 at UFC 129 and has been the case in many of his title defenses as of late, the UFC welterweight champion exploited the weakness in his opponent’s game to retain his UFC title.

Going into the fight, the knock on Shields had been his weak striking game, which St-Pierre used to his advantage, keeping the fight standing for the full five rounds.

The champion was able to take advantage of that weakness, but he did not walk away without sustaining some damage.

According to the CompuStrike stats, Shields landed 63 of 318 arm strikes he threw, leaving the champion with a bloodied face as well as a damaged left eye. The injury to the eye, which appeared to come from an eye poke from Shields, left St-Pierre unable to see from that eye for much of the fourth and fifth rounds.

In addition to bloodying the champion, Shields was able to accomplish something that no one else had done for 30 straight rounds, and that was take a round from the champion. The scorecards gave the unanimous decision victory to St-Pierre 50-45, 48-47, 48-47.

Following the fight, St-Pierre, speaking with UFC commentator Joe Rogan apologized for his performance, “I can’t see with my left eye right now. I just see a blur. I’m sorry to the fans. I wanted to make it a knockout or submission.”

The fight marked the sixth title defense for St-Pierre.

video highlights courtesy ESPN

Click here to see the video.