Say what you want about former American League MVP and six-time MLB All-Star Jose Canseco, but the man believes in himself.
With news that former WWE megastar CM Punk is joining the UFC to kick off his mixed martial arts career, Canseco took to Twitter…
Say what you want about former American League MVP and six-time MLB All-Star Jose Canseco, but the man believes in himself.
With news that former WWE megastar CM Punk is joining the UFC to kick off his mixed martial arts career, Canseco took to Twitter to offer a challenge:
I can beat the crap out of @cmpunk. I am ready @ufc
It should be noted that CM Punk walks around at 215 pounds. Even though he’s looking to fight at around 185 pounds, Punk is no small man. He’s also made millions of dollars by taking pain in the pro wrestling ring, and he is trained in kempo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
We’ve also seen Canseco in the ring. In 2009, he got destroyed by 7’2″ kickboxer Choi Hong-man.
Here’s video, in case you were curious:
So, yeah, good luck beating “the crap out of” CM Punk, Jose. We’d all like to see it.
CM Punk’s free ride into the UFC doesn’t sit well with Nate Diaz, a proven veteran with a decade of experience in the fight game.
Even a circus wouldn’t be able to hold the vast amounts of insanity that has bombarded the UFC in the pa…
CM Punk’s free ride into the UFC doesn’t sit well with Nate Diaz, a proven veteran with a decade of experience in the fight game.
Even a circus wouldn’t be able to hold the vast amounts of insanity that has bombarded the UFC in the past week. One thing is certain: The floodgates were opened when the UFC announced the signing of former WWE champion CM Punk at UFC 181.
Initially, it was believed that Punk would take up commentary or some other harmless role to get his foot in the door of the fastest-growing sport in the world. However, it was made clear to the world that the former professional wrestler had every intention to step into the cage when speaking with UFC commentator Joe Rogan during a live pay-per-view broadcast.
The UFC cage is a sacred place to every fighter who ever put on a pair of four-ounce gloves.
It’s a constant dream for fighters who work their way up from smaller venues to one day make the prideful strut to the Octagon. Top women’s bantamweight contender Cat Zingano cried during her walkout for her first UFC bout. It’s an emotional journey that is paved with blood, sweat and tears.
For fighters like Diaz, Punk’s effortless entry into MMA cheapens the experience.
“I don’t dig it,” Diaz told MMAjunkie.com. “He has got no fights. I know he’s a big draw. I looked him up. Everyone’s going to buy tickets. It’s going to be great for the venue and the UFC, but at the same time, it downgrades all the fighters.”
Diaz also said:
He might do great, but why does he get a chance? He’s an amateur. You’re going to put an amateur in there with pros? That makes us all amateurs, so I think it’s ridiculous. As far as I’m concerned, f–k him, f–k the whole situation.
There are UFC fighters supporting Punk’s efforts.
Matt Mitrione, a former NFL player, entered the UFC with a professional record of 0-0 through The Ultimate Fighter. The heavyweight star has since enjoyed a productive life as a fighter competing against the best in the world.
After hearing of Punk’s signing, he jumped on Twitter and offered complete support for the former WWE star.
For Diaz, the mere idea of someone walking off the streets into the UFC blurs the line between sport and entertainment. Given the same scenario, it is highly unlikely this deal would have played out the same in any other mainstream sport.
An MMA fighter isn’t going to waltz off the streets and go play in the NFL, NBA or MLB. If MMA is ever to be considered a mainstream sport, why should things be any different in the UFC?
“If I want to, I can’t go play in the NBA – not even Stefan Struve’s big ass,” said Diaz. “…I’m over here busting my ass, fighting for 10 years and doing my thing and having a serious job that I have to do for this. And this guy is going to come over and probably get paid more than everyone in the room.”
There has been no word on a fight date or an opponent for Punk’s MMA debut, but the line of UFC hopefuls is piling up like a Black Friday Doorbuster at Best Buy. Even women’s bantamweight contender Lauren Murphy wants in on the action.
Perhaps the most interesting callout came from Jason David Frank, otherwise known as Tommy Oliver from the ’90s television classic Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.
Though the idea of a former Power Ranger fighting a former pro wrestler in the UFC might earn several chuckles, it must be noted that Frank is a lifelong martial artist with a professional MMA record of 1-0 and 4-0 as an amateur.
Diaz probably never stopped to think he could one day be upstaged by a Power Ranger when he signed his UFC contract.
JordyMcElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.
It was weirdly comforting on Wednesday to hear Nate Diaz say he slept through his open workout.
The younger Diaz has been gone for a minute—out some 13 months squabbling with ownership over his pay—and when he returns on Saturday to fight R…
It was weirdly comforting on Wednesday to hear Nate Diaz say he slept through his open workout.
The younger Diaz has been gone for a minute—out some 13 months squabbling with ownership over his pay—and when he returns on Saturday to fight Rafael dos Anjos in the co-main event of UFC on Fox 13, it will be to a fight company that has made some tectonic shifts in his absence.
“I didn’t realize it was time to be there,” Diaz told MMAJunkie.com’s Steven Marrocco and Matt Erickson, after he no showed the media event. “I woke up and they were calling me, and they said, ‘You kinda missed open workouts.’ I kind of slept in. I wish I could’ve made it, but I didn’t make it in time.”
If any other veteran of 19 fights and more than seven years in the UFC said the same, you could be mad at him. We’ve known for a long time, however, that Nick and Nate Diaz don’t occupy the same reality as the rest of us.
In our world, things are vastly different now: the sudden crush of live events, the heedless rush into international expansion, the never-ending glut of injuries, the years-long steroid scandals, the sudden appearance of WWE’s CM Punk as the most unqualified person ever to get a shot in the Octagon. There’s been so much wholesale change in the UFC universe, we sometimes don’t even recognize the sport we all grew up loving.
But on Planet Diaz, it’s still business as usual. That feels nice, right?
This whole week has been a tour de force in being a Diaz brother, and after so much time away there was just something gloriously, wonderfully normal about it all. Like eating at your favorite greasy spoon restaurant, where the food is a little odd but the cooks feel like family.
More and more, though, you have to wonder if these are also farewell performances.
Nate is going off as about a 2-1 underdog to dos Anjos, according to Odds Shark. This will be a tough matchup for him after so much time out of the cage. If he loses he’ll be just 1-3 in his last four Octagon appearances. Likewise, Nick opened as more than a 3-1 long shot for his January superfight against Anderson Silva. A loss there would be his third straight.
Just like the losses, it seems as though the absences—the contract holdouts, the on-again, off-again retirements—are becoming more frequent. And each time the Diaz brothers are away, the changes to the sport become more drastic. It’s all enough to make you question how long our favorite misfits will choose to stick around in a company that tries to tell them what they can and can’t wear and suddenly traffics in the celebrity of rookie pro wrestlers.
Each time they return, they say it’s because they have no choice—they need the money—and this week, Nate Diaz came as close as he ever has to admitting he doesn’t think it’s worth it anymore.
“I have a job to get done this week but at the same time, I don’t know what I’m doing here,” he told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. “I just feel like a company and a fighter should treat each other mutually. Instead, I feel like I put in a hell of a lot more than I get back and when I ask for more, I get trashed. I don’t think I’ll ever get the work and damage I’ve done to myself back—and if I keep going, it’s just going to get worse. So, what the f— am I doing it for?”
This was the first time we’d heard from him since Dec. 2, when a message was posted to his personal Twitter account that appeared to let everybody know what he thought of the UFC’s new exclusive apparel deal with Reebok. He later posted that his account was hacked, and though rumors persist that he was fined by the UFC for the original comment, he stuck to his story on Wednesday.
“First of all, I didn’t tweet that—I was hacked,” Diaz told Marrocco and Erickson. “But if I feel a certain way, I’m going to say it. Other people should speak up instead of saying yes to everybody, because that just downgrades yourself. The whole UFC is a bunch of yes men and they act appreciative when none of them really are. And that’s just fine. I’m going to say how I feel, and no bullsh-ting.”
Clearly there is some delicious irony in Diaz claiming his Twitter account was hacked. And, no, you’re also not imagining things if you think the above quote reads as Diaz denying he posted the tweet while simultaneously saying he sort of agrees with its message. It also bears mentioning that as of this writing, he hasn’t deleted it. The tweet Diaz says he didn’t write is still there, on his personal timeline.
On Thursday—when he finally did make it to a press conference—he doubled down on the whole “say how I feel and no bullsh-ting” thing, voicing his displeasure with the UFC for its recent acquisition of Punk.
“F–k him, f–k the whole situation,” Diaz said, via MMA Junkie’s John Morgan, while also firing a verbal jab the wrestler’s “slicked back hair and puny f–king virgin nose.”
“I don’t think you should just let some millionaire WWE guy just come on over and play a little game, like have fun with his career,” Diaz said. “I’m over here busting my ass, fighting for 10 years and doing my thing and having a serious job that I have to do for this. And this guy is going to come over and probably get paid more than everyone in the room.”
Fact is, how Diaz feels about Punk, or whether or not he posted that tweet about the new UFC uniform deal both feel sort of immaterial at this point. Frankly, it was nice to have his take-no-prisoners media skills back on the scene, but the whole display also made it feel like the divide between the fighter and the organization is only getting wider.
These days the UFC is selling a fairly different product, and Nate and Nick are guys who are just never going to fall into lock-step. They’re never willingly going to drape themselves head to toe in corporate-approved fight gear and not make a scene over it. They’re never going to open their arms to a guy they likely view as little better than a celebrity boxing competitor.
As fans, we love them for it, but each passing day these rugged, unfiltered individualists are starting to feel more like outliers. Conventional wisdom says they’ll stick around as long as there is money to be made and that as long as they remain draws, the UFC will continue to have them.
But when have the Diaz brothers ever subscribed to conventional wisdom?
Considering their recent history of inactivity and the extent to which our sport is becoming a whole different animal, it’s easy to imagine their current tours of duty in the Octagon could be their last.
Editor’s note: To top it off, Diazbadly missed weight on Friday, weighing in for his lightweight fight against dos Anjos at 160.6 pounds. He declined to make a second attempt to make 155 and will forfeit 20 percent of his purse.
The UFC’s lightweight division has passed the point of being a proverbial shark tank. There is a long list of fighters who are waiting in the wings to challenge champion Anthony Pettis.
Rafael dos Anjos is just one of those fighters who can lay claim t…
The UFC’s lightweight division has passed the point of being a proverbial shark tank. There is a long list of fighters who are waiting in the wings to challenge champion Anthony Pettis.
Rafael dos Anjos is just one of those fighters who can lay claim to that top contender’s spot. However, he has to get past Nate Diaz at UFC on Fox 13 on Saturday first. When looking at both of these men, they each have specific pathways to follow for victory.
Diaz vs. Dos Anjos is an interesting take on the striker vs. grappler matchup. Nate battles much like his brother Nick, looking to overwhelm his opponent with constant boxing combinations and forcing him to either fold under the storm or make a bad attempt on a takedown. Once the fight hits the floor, Diaz can then show off his Brazilian jiu-jitsu chops that have helped him earn 11 of his 17 wins.
However, Dos Anjos is not to be outdone on the mat.
The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt has eight submission victories of his own. However, that should not be considered his best route to victory. In fact, he should use his BJJ as a deterrent once this fight hits the mat in order to stave off any attacks that Diaz might attempt. Instead, Dos Anjos should lean on his developing wrestling and kickboxing abilities to secure the win.
He has looked like a different fighter in many of his recent bouts. Based on his performance statistics provided by FightMetric, he has had a lot of success when he has scored multiple takedowns. One one hand, in four of his five defeats within the Octagon, his opponents took him down and controlled the positioning of the bout. On the other hand, in seven of his victories, he scored more than two takedowns of his own.
Diaz has never been known as much of a wrestling artist. In fact, he has two total takedowns in his last eight fights while defending only 45 percent of takedowns sent his way, via FightMetric.
This dynamic will give Dos Anjos the edge when it comes to the wrestling, but the question still remains as to how well his striking will compare to Diaz’s volume game. Diaz consistently overwhelms opponents with his pressure and boxing. If he can control the range of this fight and pressure Dos Anjos into bad spots, that will help him avoid being smothered on the mat. While Dos Anjos has only been stopped twice in his career—once by TKO and once by submission—Diaz has the ability to pile up the points on strikes.
The question coming into Dos Anjos vs. Diaz is where this fight will take place. If Diaz can control the range, he will have a better shot at picking up the win. However, if Dos Anjos can weather the storm, score takedowns and pepper Diaz with leg kicks, he will claim an important decision victory at a time when the lightweight division is starting to open up for new title contenders.
When the big men headline a card, there’s just a special buzz about the card. That’s the case at UFC on Fox 13 from Phoenix, Arizona. Junior dos Santos returns to the Octagon for the first time since October 2013, when he was battered and stopped by UF…
When the big men headline a card, there’s just a special buzz about the card. That’s the case at UFC on Fox 13 from Phoenix, Arizona. Junior dos Santos returns to the Octagon for the first time since October 2013, when he was battered and stopped by UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez.
Dos Santos has been UFC heavyweight champion once in his career, and he wants nothing more than another chance to get back to the top of the mountain. His opponent has similar aspirations.
StipeMiocic has won three straight fights since losing to Stefan “The Skyscraper” Struve by TKO in 2012. The winner of the main event will be in great position to become the top challenger for the interim and regular UFC heavyweight title.
This epic battle is just one of the fights on tap.
Rafael dos Anjos will welcome Nate Diaz back to the Octagon. The aforementioned Struve also returns, and he’ll face Alistair Overeem. There’s a plethora of big names scheduled to scrap. As network television cards go, this one ranks pretty high. Here’s the viewing information, complete card and predictions for each fight.
Just below the table is a closer look at the top-three fights on the card.
Overeem’s Last Stand
Let’s face it. Alistair Overeem has lost three of his last four fights. Another loss might just put Overeem on the UFC cut line. Unfortunately for The Reem, that will likely be the situation.
Overeem’s chin has long been suspect. Nine of his 14 career losses have come by KO/TKO. If the Skyscraper can connect on Overeem’s chin, the latter will go to sleep. Because Struve stands 7’0″ tall and owns a seven-inch height advantage over Overeem, he should find the range first.
Look for Struve to win by first-round KO.
Diaz Will Retain with a Bang
Diaz last fought in the UFC in November 2013. He stopped an over-the-hill Gray Maynard. Rafael dos Anjos is no Maynard, but in the end Diaz will still come out on top.
While dos Anjos may have an edge in speed, Diaz‘s boxing is among the best in the lightweight division. Couple that with Diaz‘s five-inch height advantage, and the man from Stockton, California, should have the edge in stand-up.
As far as the grappling game, few can match Diaz on the mat. Dos Anjos is far from an amateur grappler, but Diaz‘s submission game is better. After taking control with a dominant jab, Diaz will take the action to the mat and tap out dos Anjos.
Dos Santos Will Thump Miocic
Miocic prefers to stand and strike. He’s good at it, but no heavyweight in the UFC can beat dos Santos at that game. Cain Velasquez has beaten dos Santos twice on the strength of his pressure and ability to ground and pound.
Though dos Santos did a fairly good job staying on his feet in two losses to Velasquez, the threat of Cain’s ground game was always a factor. That won’t be a factor against Miocic.
This fight will be all about striking, and dos Santos’ boxing and leg kicks are too much for Miocic. Junior will return to the win column with a second-round TKO victory.
Follow Brian Mazique on Twitter. I dig boxing and MMA.
As if The Ultimate Fighter 20 Finale on Friday wasn’t enough, the Octagon is primed for a quick turnaround, as UFC on Fox 13 will air this Saturday, December 13.
The card is bursting at the seams, with 13 clashes on the ledger (no word yet on…
As if The Ultimate Fighter 20 Finale on Friday wasn’t enough, the Octagon is primed for a quick turnaround, as UFC on Fox 13 will air this Saturday, December 13.
The card is bursting at the seams, with 13 clashes on the ledger (no word yet on whether the No. 13 is mere coincidence, homage to Dan Marino or something more sinister), with four scraps composing the main card.
The UFC on Fox 13 main card includes:
Junior dos Santos vs. StipeMiocic
Rafael dos Anjos vs. Nate Diaz
Alistair Overeem vs. Stefan Struve
Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Matt Mitrione
Among this quartet are some influential bouts in the heavyweight division, as well as a meaningful fight at 155 pounds. There is no shortage of import to be found within the main card, but rankings and title implications are just the tip of the iceberg.
What’s really at stake this Saturday? Well, as the penultimate event of 2014, UFC on Fox 13 stands as a pivotal moment in the main card staff prediction series, which is coming down to the wire.
Sean “The Pine Weasel” Smith, Scott “The Hare” Harris, Riley “Python” Kontek, James “Bumble Bee” MacDonald and Craig “Capybara” Amos deliver our latest round of forecasts, right here.
Say what you want about former American League MVP and six-time MLB All-Star Jose Canseco, but the man believes in himself.