Tag: MMA

UFC 131: Brock Lesnar out vs. Junior Dos Santos, Shane Carwin To Take His Place

The string of top-level fighters needing to drop out of fights continues today. Bleacher Report learned on a UFC conference call that Brock Lesnar has officially pulled out of his scheduled UFC 131 bout against Junior dos Santos. He will be replaced by…

The string of top-level fighters needing to drop out of fights continues today. Bleacher Report learned on a UFC conference call that Brock Lesnar has officially pulled out of his scheduled UFC 131 bout against Junior dos Santos. He will be replaced by fellow top heavyweight contender, Shane Carwin.

After spending nearly a year outside of the Octagon, battling nearly to death with a disease known as diverticulitis, Lesnar returned to defend his UFC heavyweight championship against Shane Carwin before eventually dropping the belt to Cain Velasquez later in the year.

Unfortunately, the disease has been acting up again and has significantly impacted his training regimen, causing him to drop out of the fight.

“I want to thank the UFC, Mr. [Dana] White and I want to apologize to Junior dos Santos and to Spike TV. This is an unfortunate situation for me,” Lesnar started. “Diverticulitis is something that doesn’t go away. It’s something that’s in your colon for the rest of your life.”

“I was forced to make a decision to go back down to the doctor this week to determine how far along this thing is.”

Thankfully, the situation is not as dire as it was the first time he was dealing with it, but it is becoming increasingly likely that Lesnar will eventually need surgery.

“It’s not as serious as last time, it just didn’t allow me to train the way I needed to train for a number one contender’s bout,” Lesnar conceded. “I’m forced with the decision to either have surgery or deal with this for the rest of my life. A lot of things go through your mind as an athlete. This is something that has been wearing on me for about a month now.”

But true to what he has always said, Lesnar understands that fighting is only a small part of his life. His loved ones are what matters most.

“It wouldn’t be fair to myself, my family, or the people I give a performance in front of. I wouldn’t have been 100 percent on June 11. I’m not there now. My health is number one, my family is number one.”

Still, the former champion insists this is not the end.

“I’ll tell you one thing, I’m not retiring. This is not the end of my career. I love this sport. This is not the end of Brock Lesnar…Far from it.”

He has not decided whether or not he will get surgery immediately or will attempt to fight it without going under the knife, as he did before. Brock, his family and doctors, are still awaiting test results to determine what the next course of action is.

“My diet has carried me this far. It was a miracle that I didn’t have to have the surgery. Everything was back to normal. But diverticulitis never disappears. It’s whether they become inflamed and infected. I felt the symptoms about three weeks ago and I got on the antibiotics and they didn’t do it, so I started a second course of antibiotics.”

Though he is not in the hospital at the moment, the battle with the disease has taken a serious physical toll on Lesnar as he prepared for his bout with Dos Santos.

“There were days when I had to miss a day just to rest for the next day, but when I got in, I just didn’t have the energy to be at the top of my game.”

“When you have a 12-week training camp and it’s condensed to six, it’s not a wise athletic decision. I just didn’t feel like I could do it.”

Dana White made sure to note that he understands, respects and agrees that Lesnar’s health is more important than fighting for the UFC. But with the company’s top draw being knocked out of the UFC 131 event, the replacement has already been named in the form of former interim champion, Shane Carwin.

Carwin was originally scheduled to fight UFC newcomer, Jon Olav Einemo on the same show, but will now get a shot to prove himself once again against one of the top fighters in the world.

No replacement for Carwin has been named yet, but Dana White did indicate that the company is working on it. 

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Brock Lesnar: Another Bout with Diverticulitis Forces Him off UFC 131

The news just keeps getting worse for the UFC, and Brock Lesnar will face another uphill battle to get back into the octagon. During a conference call on Thursday afternoon, Dana White announced that Lesnar had to pull out of his scheduled bout with Ju…

The news just keeps getting worse for the UFC, and Brock Lesnar will face another uphill battle to get back into the octagon. During a conference call on Thursday afternoon, Dana White announced that Lesnar had to pull out of his scheduled bout with Junior dos Santos at UFC 131 due to a recurrence of diverticulitis.

This is the same condition that kept Lesnar out of action for a year in 2009-10. The injury is not expected to be career threatening, but he does face a decision of whether or not to have surgery or live with the disease for the rest of his life.

“I am not retiring, I want to make that clear,” a clearly upset Lesnar told reporters.

White announced that dos Santos would fight at UFC 131 against former heavyweight championship contender Shane Carwin.

This news comes just days after Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard were forced to pull out of their fight at UFC 130 due to injuries suffered during training.

Lesnar tried to stay positive throughout the press conference, acknowledging that he is taking the steps that he has to in order to get back to being completely healthy.

He was diagnosed two days ago when he went to the hospital with abdominal pain.

Lesnar has every intention of getting back into the octagon and will do whatever he has to in order to get his career back on track. He hasn’t made a decision whether he will have the surgery or not, nor did he offer any kind of a time table for when he will make that decision, but he did say that he will evaluate all of his options to see what is in his best interest.

If Lesnar does have surgery, it will keep him out of action for at least a year. I would imagine he will do everything that he can to avoid that, but if it improves his quality of life I can’t see him not going through with it.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

MMA Critic Bob Reilly: Instead of Insurance, MMA Should "Do Away with Injuries"

New York Assemblyman Bob Reilly has been one of, if not the, most vocal critics when it comes to the legalization of mixed martial arts in New York state.
In 2009, AOL News reported Reilly saying:
“It’s (MMA) a violent sport that is harmful and damagin…

New York Assemblyman Bob Reilly has been one of, if not the, most vocal critics when it comes to the legalization of mixed martial arts in New York state.

In 2009, AOL News reported Reilly saying:

“It’s (MMA) a violent sport that is harmful and damaging. Violence begets violence. It helps create a culture in our society of domestic violence, of bullying, of violence against gays, of illegal gun use. It’s the job of state legislatures to pass laws against that sort of stuff, and then we put something like ultimate fighting as our form of entertainment?”

Earlier this week, it was announced that Zuffa LLC, the parent company of the UFC and Strikeforce, would extend more robust insurance benefits to all of their contracted fighters.

Zuffa had previously provided insurance to its fighters for injuries sustained on fight night. According to the UFC, the new insurance, which Zuffa will fully pay for, would “cover accidental injuries suffered by athletes while training, as well as non-training incidents such as automobile accidents.”

This a huge step by Zuffa and has been widely applauded by fans and fighters alike.

MMAFighting.com‘s Ariel Helwani contacted Reilly to get his take on how the news could possibly impact his stance on bringing MMA to New York:

“What immediately came to my mind was, ‘What’s the need for insurance?'” Reilly asked. “Because advocates for MMA have been touting how safe this sport is and that no one is ever injured, and in fact, the testimony here is that the worst that ever happened was a broken arm. But I don’t think that insurance is going to do anything for the very prevalent brain damage that fighters will suffer.”

Reilly continued, “I think what MMA should be doing is, instead of providing insurance for injuries, is to do away with injuries.”

And while Reilly did praise Zuffa for providing insurance to the UFC and Strikeforce fighters, the news did nothing to soften his stance on MMA: “I think it’s a positive thing, but I don’t think it’s a positive step. In the sense that it doesn’t address the systemic problems of MMA. But it’s certainly not a negative thing.”

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

TapouT Duo Agree To Return Charles "Mask" Lewis’ Ashes to His Sister

Earlier this week news broke that the sister of Charles “Mask” Lewis had filed a lawsuit against Punkass and Skyscrape, Mask’s TapouT partners.TMZ.com broke the story that Lewis’ sister, Carla had filed a lawsuit alleging that Punkass and Skyscrape had…

Earlier this week news broke that the sister of Charles “Mask” Lewis had filed a lawsuit against Punkass and Skyscrape, Mask’s TapouT partners.

TMZ.com broke the story that Lewis’ sister, Carla had filed a lawsuit alleging that Punkass and Skyscrape had Lewis’ cremated remains in their possession and would not return them. The suit also alleged that the duo had distributed their partner’s ashes at a memorial service after his 2009 death.

Skyscrape took to the Underground Forum posting, “You all who talk s**t should know the whole story first!!! She is a nut case that Charles couldn’t stand(his words not mine)! And I was the closest person to him the past 13 years! She is reaching for SOMETHING!”

Skyscrape later softened that stance, “I’m sorry for sayin what I said today! It just gets to me so much when all these people come tryin to take what we’ve worked so hard to build! I should (and actually do know) how people are by now and it doesn’t surprise me!”

“All the talk about “the lawsuits wouldn’t have happened if Charles was here” etc, take it’s toll no matter how strong I try and be! The only thing that wouldn’t have happened is lawsuits over stolen remains, and selling them at the memorial(WHICH IS NOT TRUE BTW). I would NEVER do that or allow that to be done!”

TMZ is now reporting that Punkass and Skyscrape have agreed to return the ashes to Lewis’ sister.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 130: Quinton Jackson’s Patella and Why We Didn’t Need to Hear About It

So it was his patella after all.Or, in layman’s terms, his “knee” (and not the Spanish dish).The following is Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s explanation on why he slapped Rashad Evans in a nightclub. It comes with a bonus: the other reason why…

So it was his patella after all.

Or, in layman’s terms, his “knee” (and not the Spanish dish).

The following is Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s explanation on why he slapped Rashad Evans in a nightclub. It comes with a bonus: the other reason why Evans kicked his gluteus maximus last time they fought in the UFC, the first being octagon rust.

“Like Rashad came up to me and told me ‘I fought [Lyoto] Machida the same way he fought me.’ He come tell me stuff like that cuz he sour because I beat Machida and he got knocked the hell out by Machida. And he basically didn’t do anything against Machida, so he trying to get sour about that.

“He knows the only reason he beat me is because I was rusty and I was injured. If you go back and watch that fight he was punching me in my knee, my knee that was hurt. I never seen anybody punch anyone in the knee in MMA in all the years I been doing MMA. But somehow he knew my knee was injured” (MiddleEasy.com, May 9, 2011; italics added).

In case you lost count, he mentioned knee four times.

An ailing knee or any injury may be a valid reason for losing a fight.

The losing fighter, if given the benefit of the doubt, could be publicizing it post-fight simply as a matter of fact.

But he only makes it sound like a sorry excuse.

Leading into the fight, it’s a given that teammates, trainers and physicians must know about any injury or sickness afflicting the fighter, from mild to severe.

But you wouldn’t want your opponent to be in the know and exploit it—unless it’s your tactic to make him overconfident.

It’s a principle in combat sports not to expect your opponent to make your liability his liability.

You can’t make him limit his offensive options by obliging him to spare your injury.

You can’t go like, “Hey, Rashad! My knee’s hurt so don’t hit it while I hit every part of you as the rules allow.” (In fairness to Jackson, he implied that Evans was not supposed to know about it but “somehow he knew.”)

Tell your trainer, teammate, doctors and manager. From there, let the sports media and fans do their sleuthing without making their job easier.

Otherwise, if you think the severity of your injury will greatly disadvantage you and cause you to lose the fight—or worse—then don’t fight at all. And tell the world about it.

A UFC fighter can always text Dana White, “My head was crane-kicked last sparring session and it flew out of the window. I’ll just have myself sewn back together again and fight next time.”

Here’s praying that our UFC 130 main event fighters Quinton Jackson and Matt Hamill will be fighting fit and ready to rumble this May 28.

Especially after the cancellation of the original main event, Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard III, due to injuries.

By the way, has Hamill ever complained about his hearing conditions?

UFC 130 Results, News and More

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MMA: 10 Fighters Who Are Remembered More for Their Losses Than Their Wins

There are many fighters who have accomplished a lot in mixed martial arts, but they sometimes do it more often by losing than they do by winning. To fans, it doesn’t matter as long as they put it all on the line, and these fighters do. Whether they are…

There are many fighters who have accomplished a lot in mixed martial arts, but they sometimes do it more often by losing than they do by winning. To fans, it doesn’t matter as long as they put it all on the line, and these fighters do.

Whether they are remembered for their exciting, close decision losses or by going out on their shield every time out, these 10 fighters still managed to make it to the very top of the sport fighting the very best while not having the best success.

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