Tag: MMA

Jake Shields Blasts, Challenges Johny Hendricks on Twitter

With Dana White saying that GSP’s next opponent will likely be Nick Diaz, the presumed top contender, Johny Hendricks, has been whipped into a fervor, lashing out on Twitter and retweeting every supporter he can find.One person, though, is coming to th…

With Dana White saying that GSP’s next opponent will likely be Nick Diaz, the presumed top contender, Johny Hendricks, has been whipped into a fervor, lashing out on Twitter and retweeting every supporter he can find.

One person, though, is coming to the defense of Nick Diaz. It’s his Cesar Gracie teammate, Jake Shields.

From Shields’ Twitter:

 

 

 

The tweet is somewhat confusing, as Shields recently moved back to the middleweight division after going 2-2 as a welterweight in the UFC. He is currently serving a six-month suspension following his UFC 150 fight with Ed Herman. While Shields won the fight by unanimous decision, the bout has since been changed to a no-contest.

Hendricks was originally expected to be the next to face Georges St-Pierre (assuming he passed on Anderson Silva, of course) but Dana White broke the news earlier today that the UFC is working next pit him against rival Nick Diaz.

On paper, Hendricks is the far more deserving challenger. Nick Diaz is currently 1-1 in the UFC, with his most recent fight a loss to Carlos Condit. Hendricks, meanwhile, is riding a five-fight winning streak and scored huge knockout victories over top fighters Martin Kampmann and Jon Fitch.

Ultimately, though, Diaz is substantially more popular and St-Pierre has avidly pushed for a fight with him. He even said he wanted Diaz to beat teammate Carlos Condit for the interim welterweight belt.

No date has been set, but with UFC 156 and 157 both assigned main events — Frankie Edgar vs. Jose Aldo and Ronda Rousey vs. Liz Carmouche, respectively — the earliest possible date would likely be March 2013.

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GSP: Why Facing Anderson Silva Would Have Been the Biggest Mistake of His Career

A superfight with Anderson Silva would’ve been great for everyone but Georges St-Pierre.The hopes of millions of MMA fans was let down on Thursday when it was revealed St-Pierre would not be facing Silva in his next fight.According to UFC President Dan…

A superfight with Anderson Silva would’ve been great for everyone but Georges St-Pierre.

The hopes of millions of MMA fans was let down on Thursday when it was revealed St-Pierre would not be facing Silva in his next fight.

According to UFC President Dana White, the French Canadian will likely defend his welterweight title against Nick Diaz.

For years, fans have salivated over the possibility of St-Pierre fighting Silva. Who wouldn’t want to see the two top pound-for-pound fighters in the world compete against one another at a major venue?

The bout would’ve created a media buzz unlike anything MMA fans have ever seen and possibly even taken the sport to new heights.

At 37 years of age, the window is closing on Silva’s illustrious career. He wants to put on the biggest fights possible, and it doesn’t get any bigger than a superfight with St-Pierre, who White claims to be the UFC’s biggest pay-per-view draw.

For White, it’s fairly obvious why he’s adamant about St-Pierre fighting Silva. He can give the fans the fight they want to see while simultaneously break the bank with blockbuster ticket and pay-per-view sales.

The superfight makes sense for everyone else involved, but what about St-Pierre? Does fighting Silva make sense for him?

The timing isn’t the greatest.

St-Pierre was out of action for well over a year after undergoing surgery for a torn ACL in 2011. He looked fantastic in his UFC return against Carlos Condit at UFC 154, but after the fight, St-Pierre admitted that he felt a little rusty.

Silva is the last opponent anyone wants to face if they’re not 100 percent back in the swing of things.

The other obvious discrepancy is Silva’s size advantage. People often talk about how Silva would be dwarfed in a superfight with Jon Jones. Well, the same thing would apply to St-Pierre in a bout with Silva.

The mantra in MMA is that a fighter is only as good as his or her last fight.

Unfortunately, this holds true amongst most fans, who typically alienate fighters after a loss. St-Pierre has a great thing going at welterweight with sponsorships and large pay-per-view paydays.

A bout against Silva might have been the biggest mistake of his career. How many times have we seen fighters get knocked out and become a shell of their former selves?

It makes little sense for St-Pierre to risk his career and livelihood by stepping into the Octagon against a larger fighter who also happens to be the greatest knockout artist in the history of the sport.

Perhaps MMA fans have become spoiled by fighters like Silva, BJ Penn and Randy Couture. All three of these legends were willing to move up and down in weight, but this is what makes them special.

Fighters shouldn’t be pressured into taking fights at heavier or lighter weight classes. They should be able to compete where they feel most comfortable.

Luckily, there are plenty of great fights left for St-Pierre at welterweight to keep him occupied. As for Silva, he doesn’t need to beat up on a smaller guy to further his all-time status.

He could just fight Jones.

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UFC 157: What Happens If Ronda Rousey Gets Beaten Badly by Liz Carmouche?

Ronda Rousey is fighting Liz Carmouche and she’s expected to trample her—but what if Rousey doesn’t?What if the unthinkable happens and Rousey, the UFC’s poster-woman for women’s MMA, gets beaten? And what happens if she gets beaten badly?How bad…

Ronda Rousey is fighting Liz Carmouche and she’s expected to trample her—but what if Rousey doesn’t?

What if the unthinkable happens and Rousey, the UFC’s poster-woman for women’s MMA, gets beaten? And what happens if she gets beaten badly?

How badly? Like Mark Hominick vs. Jose Aldo or Joe Stevenson vs. BJ Penn badly. What on earth would happen then? Could women’s MMA really survive that?

No, it couldn’t. 

If Rousey loses—even if it’s by a decision—WMMA in the UFC will almost definitely crash and burn. 

UFC president Dana White was an outspoken critic of WMMA and once said that women would “never” fight in the UFC. Yet now, here they are, about to fight in the UFC.

Obviously, it’s no coincidence that as soon as an attractive, young, silver-tongued, female fighter showed up that he suddenly changed his tune; Ronda Rousey is an easy sell. Unfortunately, other prominent female fighters don’t have as much earning potential.

Zuffa (the company that owns the UFC and Strikeforce), throughout its voyage through WMMA, has shown that the only way it knows how to market a female athlete is through sex appeal. Why else would they have put Sarah Kaufman in that ridiculous white leather outfit?

The UFC needs Ronda Rousey for their female-fighter venture to be successful. It’s sad that when women are involved, sex appeal has to be part of the equation but that’s the unpleasant truth.

If Rousey‘s star is dimmed by a loss, or if it goes outright supernova by a devastating beatdown, Dana White’s tune will change. After all, his commitment to WMMA seems tepid at best. “We’re kind of playing with it,” he said. “I know this, over the next couple of years we’ve got fights in the 135-pound division, good fights. Ronda’s the champ and she’ll come in and we’ll see how this thing plays out.”

Should Carmouche win, White will likely deem that the foray into WMMA played out poorly, and the plug will in all likelihood be pulled. The upshot of the UFC’s WMMA experiment would be naught but for the disappointment of Zuffa brass.

 

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UFC Video: Breaking Down Ronda Rousey’s UFC 157 Main Event News

SEATTLE — UFC on Fox is a mere two days away, but another piece of news has officially overshadowed the best free fight card in mixed martial arts history: the announcement that Ronda Rousey will defend her new UFC women’s bantamweight title against L…

SEATTLE — UFC on Fox is a mere two days away, but another piece of news has officially overshadowed the best free fight card in mixed martial arts history: the announcement that Ronda Rousey will defend her new UFC women’s bantamweight title against Liz Carmouche in the main event of February’s UFC 157 card in Anaheim.

Fellow Caged In contributor Duane Finley and I got together after the conclusion of the press conference to discuss Rousey‘s official induction in the UFC, how far she can take women’s MMA and her first actual fight.

Check out the video above and leave your own thoughts in the comments below.

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Matt Brown Seeking Vengeance for Mike Swick Ignoring Him on Myspace

Mike Swick could’ve easily avoided the feud with Matt Brown if he would’ve simply checked his Myspace messages.The two welterweight knockout artists are set to collide in the main card opener of UFC on Fox 5, but they already have a history most don’t …

Mike Swick could’ve easily avoided the feud with Matt Brown if he would’ve simply checked his Myspace messages.

The two welterweight knockout artists are set to collide in the main card opener of UFC on Fox 5, but they already have a history most don’t even know about.

It all began with a Myspace message Brown sent Swick many years ago.

During an interview with MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani, Brown dished out the dirt on the message he sent as a fan that went unanswered:

Honestly, [Swick] was the first fighter I really looked up to on “The Ultimate Fighter 1.” I actually even wrote him a message on Myspace, and I was real pissed because he never replied to my message. I was like, “He’s an asshole.”

Brown joked afterwards that his entire motivation for this fight was the Myspace incident.

He isn’t sure whether or not Swick even saw the message, but he plans on telling him about it after the fight on Saturday night.

The emergence of Brown as a potential welterweight contender has gone unnoticed as of late. He is currently riding a three-fight win streak, with two of the wins coming by TKO.

It has been three years since Brown last put together such an impressive streak, and he doesn’t plan on letting this opportunity go to waste.

A win over Swick would put Brown one step closer to contending with the upper-echelon fighters in the division, but it won’t be easy.

Swick is on a mission to prove he is still a contender in the UFC. After being out of action for over two years, he returned in August and knocked out DaMarques Johnson.

How will it end on Saturday night?

While Brown is unsure how the actually fight will end, he is confident that his hand will be raised:

I could see myself winning this fight a multitude of ways, an absolutely number of ways. I think I can beat him anywhere that this fight takes place, and it’s just going to be a matter of when he makes that mistake and when I jump on that mistake.

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UFC 157: Rousey vs Carmouche as the Main Event, Good Idea or Bad Idea?

Ronda Rousey and the biggest hype train the UFC has promoted in quite some time will be blowing through the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA in February for UFC 157. Not only is Rousey part of the card, but her fight with Liz Carmouche will be the Main Even…

Ronda Rousey and the biggest hype train the UFC has promoted in quite some time will be blowing through the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA in February for UFC 157.

Not only is Rousey part of the card, but her fight with Liz Carmouche will be the Main Event of the evening. So much for easing Rousey into the Octagon.

The pulse I’m feeling from the majority of B/R readers is that you feel as though Rousey has been hyped up to the point where it’s hard to imagine her stock rising any higher. Yes, she has great judo skills and can pull a mean armbar on everyone, but is the UFC making a wise decision in placing her and Carmouche in a main event for the first female UFC fight?

It’s the hope of fans that placing Rousey as the headliner isn’t foreshadowing the fact that this is going to be a card light on big names. There have been rumors of so many fighters participating in this event, but as of now (just a little over two months from the event) there doesn’t appear to be anything resembling a complete fight card confirmed.

The only other fight confirmed for the event is Urijah Faber vs. Ivan Menjivar.

Perhaps Dana White knows Rousey can sell people on purchasing the fight to see her at this stage of her career. She has no losses and has appeared to be the most dominant female fighter we have ever seen in MMA.

I bet White also knows that she is one loss from losing a lot of her selling influence.

If Rousey was placed as part of a card and not the main event at UFC 157 and went on to lose, who in their right mind would believe she’d be able to sell a main event?

This is a great idea for the UFC. Put their poster girl out there now and have her sell a fight while she is the talk of the MMA world because you can’t be certain that her success is going to continue.

I do feel, however, that this is a bad sign for fans with regard to how the entire UFC 157 card will shape up.

Joe Chacon is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report and a staff writer for Operation Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @JoeChacon.

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