Tag: quick quote

Former Strikeforce Champ ‘Feijao’ Cavalcante Hoping To Fight This April, No Title Shot In Near Future

With the abdication of former Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Dan Henderson, and the recent positive steroid result for Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal, the Zuffa owned promotion is running out of available fighters to contend for the vacant title. One of those hoping for a shot at the belt, is former champ Rafael ‘Feijao’ Cavalcante (11-3) […]

With the abdication of former Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Dan Henderson, and the recent positive steroid result for Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal, the Zuffa owned promotion is running out of available fighters to contend for the vacant title.

One of those hoping for a shot at the belt, is former champ Rafael ‘Feijao’ Cavalcante (11-3) who has been sitting patiently since his win last September over Yoel Romero Palacio. The two met in Ohio as part of the Barnett vs. Kharitonov event and saw Cavalcante end the fight by second round knockout.

‘Feijao’ is hoping to return to action this April, and had been training to face ‘King Mo’ for the 205-lbs strap, but with Lawal out the Brazilian figures he’ll have to compete one more time before he gets a shot at reclaiming his belt.

“I’ll probably fight in April. I was training to fight King Mo for the title, but it was canceled and I decided to back off… I want to fight more, that’s all. If they give me three fights a year, I’m good to go”, explains Cavalcante, who does not like to pick out names.

Rafael had been matched up for a dispute of the interim title against the also former champion King Mo Lawal, but the American anti-doping test forced the organization to change plans.

After that, he doesn’t believe he’ll fight for the championship. “Who would be my opponent for the title fight? Of course I would like to do it, but it’s unlikely. I think they will put me to fight one more time before I fight for the title”, regrets.

Cavalcante is 4-1 in his last five matches, defeating Romero last fall and losing to Dan Henderson, as well as the title, last March in Columbus, Ohio.

‘Jacare’ Souza Is Expecting A Tough Fight Versus Bristol Marunde On March 3rd

Former Strikeforce middleweight champ Ronaldo ‘Jacaré’ Souza (14-3, 1NC) isn’t expecting an easier fight just because he had an opponent change with a couple weeks left to go. Souza had been training to face undefeated fighter Derek Brunson on March 3, 2012 on the Showtime broadcasta for the Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey event. Unfortunately Brunson […]

Ronaldo Souza

Former Strikeforce middleweight champ Ronaldo ‘Jacaré’ Souza (14-3, 1NC) isn’t expecting an easier fight just because he had an opponent change with a couple weeks left to go.

Souza had been training to face undefeated fighter Derek Brunson on March 3, 2012 on the Showtime broadcasta for the Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey event. Unfortunately Brunson was not able to obtain his license from the Ohio State Athletic Commission and was eventually replaced by promotion newcomer Bristol Marunde.

Marunde is no slouch, having won four straight and is 10-1 in his last eleven bouts, which includes capturing the Superior Cage Combat middleweight title.

Speaking to Tatame.com, Souza talked about his preparations for Marunde as well as his thoughts on the SCC champ.

What did you change after they replaced your opponent?
They’ve replaced my opponent but I did not change my trainings. I keep training Jiu-Jitsu a lot, Boxing on its proper amount and an intense cardio training. Now I gotta get there and cut weight. That’s my greatest difficulty now.

What do you know about Bristol Marunde, who is a debutant at Strikeforce?
I’ve seen his last four wins, which were good over tough guys. He is not unknown. You only need to look for him and you’ll see he has fought tough guys, he has beaten former UFC fighters. He is an excellent athlete, I gotta be smart about this fight. I could tell he has strong hands and that he’s a good wrestler, complete.

Do you have a game plan set for him?
Fighting is all about the game plan, I gotta know my opponent. I’m trying to get to know him so I can find a way to fight him. This is my greatest difficulty now. He said he wants to stand-up against me… He better be careful with what he wishes for because he can go down.

Brazilian Fighter Vagner Rocha Released From The UFC Following FUEL TV Loss

Brazilian mixed martial artist Vagner Rocha (7-3) has seen his career in the Octagon end at three bouts following a loss to Jonathan Brookins earlier this month as part of the UFC on FUEL TV 1 card. Rocha dropped to featherweight and was matched against the TUF season 12 winner, winding up losing in the […]

Brazilian mixed martial artist Vagner Rocha (7-3) has seen his career in the Octagon end at three bouts following a loss to Jonathan Brookins earlier this month as part of the UFC on FUEL TV 1 card.

Rocha dropped to featherweight and was matched against the TUF season 12 winner, winding up losing in the end via knockout at 1:32 of the first round.

The BJJ black belt spoke to Tatame.com earlier this week to announce his release.

“It happened, I was knocked out, but it’s good experience because you never think it’s happening to you. It happens to everybody”, commented Vagner.

“I was really confident about it, both on the stand-up and on the ground and I actually had a good start. I didn’t thought it (the punch) would get me, but it found me and hit me on the right spot. It was perfect. I have never been knocked out, nor even during practice… It really caught me by surprise”.

While UFC has not officially announced his dismissal, Vagner wants to rest. “Unfortunately I trained for almost three months for this fight because my last bout had been canceled and I kept on training. Now I’ll take some time to rest”.

Rocha debuted with the UFC this past June at UFC 131, stepping in as a late replacement for an injured Mac Danzig versus Donald Cerrone. ‘The Cowboy’ would earn a one sided decision over Rocha, who was now 1-1 in his last two.

Rocha would then fight in September in New Orleans, submitting Cody McKenzie via rear-naked choke submission in the second round to earn his first Octagon victory. The Brazilian would then drop to 145-lbs and face Brookins at the Feb. 15 event, suffering his second loss in three fights and subsequently released.

Melvin Guillard Really, Really Hopes Joe Lauzon Loses This Weekend

UFC lightweight Melvin ‘The Young Assassin’ Guillard (29-10, 1NC) is really hoping that Joe Lauzon loses to Anthony Pettis this weekend when those two square off in Japan at UFC 144. Both men squared off in October of last year at UFC 136, with Lauzon earning a big upset by submitting Guillard in 47-seconds. Guillard […]

Lauzon taps Guillard at UFC 136 – Photo via UFC.com

UFC lightweight Melvin ‘The Young Assassin’ Guillard (29-10, 1NC) is really hoping that Joe Lauzon loses to Anthony Pettis this weekend when those two square off in Japan at UFC 144.

Both men squared off in October of last year at UFC 136, with Lauzon earning a big upset by submitting Guillard in 47-seconds.

Guillard surmises that if Lauzon does lose, he’ll get a rematch with the seven time “Fight Night” bonus winner.

Speaking to MMAWeekly.com, Guillard is a little hot under the collar feeling that Lauzon has been disrespecting him in interviews, when he’s been “respectful” and handling the loss to Lauzon the “right way.”

“I’m sitting here and I’m being a good sport about my losses. The Jim Miler fight, Jim Miller had nothing bad to say, he said nothing but great things about me, he respected my skills and I respected his. For me, I feel disrespected because I’ve done nothing but talk Joe Lauzon up, even when a lot of interviews and fight analysts were still not giving him the credit that was due saying that 9 out of 10 times he would win that once, and I would win the other nine. So people were bashing him and it wasn’t even me, and I’m standing up for him saying that Joe Lauzon is a top competitor, he can be in the top five, top ten or whatever. Now he’s blasting out at me and I have not said anything bad towards Joe Lauzon…. ”

“In the 10 losses I have in my MMA career, I haven’t rematched anyone I’ve lost to. Not once, I’ve never really cared for rematches because I felt they won, now I’ll move on. Right now, I’m at the point where this fight means something to me, I have something to prove against Joe Lauzon, so this is a rematch I’m asking for,” said Guillard.

“Right now, I’m looking to watch the fights in Japan and I’m praying that he loses to (Anthony) Pettis because I want a rematch against Joe Lauzon. I don’t want to fight nobody next but Joe Lauzon,” Guillard said.

“I don’t even care how it goes, I just want to see Pettis win and I want an immediate rematch with Joe Lauzon. Hopefully, I can get that rematch by fourth of July in Vegas.”

‘King Mo’ Lawal Almost Lost His Leg To A Recent Staph Infection

Since a positive steroid test following a win over Lorenz Larkins at the Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine event, former light heavyweight champ Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal has been pretty quiet, pulling away from the public limelight. On Monday, Lawal revealed to the SiriusXM Fight Club that after the bout he underwent ACL surgery and subsequently […]

Photos by Esther Lin/Forza LLC/Forza LLC via Getty Images

Since a positive steroid test following a win over Lorenz Larkins at the Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine event, former light heavyweight champ Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal has been pretty quiet, pulling away from the public limelight.

On Monday, Lawal revealed to the SiriusXM Fight Club that after the bout he underwent ACL surgery and subsequently suffered a very bad staph infection, which was so bad that could have cost him his leg if it wasn’t for numerous surgeries.

(Props to BloodyElbow.com for the transcript)

Alright here’s the thing. All this happened like three weeks ago but I didn’t tell nobody. I was in the hospital with people texting me and I was trying to keep it like nothing was going on so there wouldn’t be any red flags. But what happened was I had surgery after the fight. I had ACL and macrofracture (?). The ACL wasn’t a big deal but the macrofracture was a bigger deal in my cartilage. One of the sutures got infected and I had to go to the hospital the day after the Rashad Evans/Phil Davis fight. I got blood taken out of my knee and taken to a lab. I was at my manager’s crib…Mike Kogan’s crib and all of the sudden my doctor’s like ‘hey, you’ve gotta come to the hospital right now’. And this is right after Chael won. So I went to the hospital before the Rashad Evans/Phil Davis fight and I watched the fight at the hospital. Then went into the surgery spot and woke up with the pick line in my arm and they were telling me I would be in there till Monday. I figured I’d go in there and clear my knee out and I’d be out the same night or the next night but I was in there till Monday. Then they checked out my knee again and took the temperature and the knee was still hot and swelling up. They decided to take me back into surgery to do another flush procedure to get the staph infection out. In twelve days I had five procedures to remove the staph and I’m staph free now. But now they’ve pushed IV medicine through my pick line that’s connected to my heart through my arm every day for six weeks.

This is the toughest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. The harded that I’ve experienced in my life. Spiritually and emotionally, man I’ll put it like this. I’m not religious at all. I was born to a Muslim family. Man this had me thinking I had to purchase the Quran and get back to my faith and start having more talks with Allah. Seeing my teammates come see me, it broke me down a few times man. Coach Mendez came and saw me a lot. Coach Bob, Paul Buentello, Dan Cormier…people on the team. Jermain Ramsey and Jenna…Phil. I just had so many people contact me and come through it was tough man. It pushed me. Mentally I’ll be a stronger person. I know I’ll be stronger and I’ll be a better fighter.

Brazilian Rani Yahya Plans Drop To UFC Bantamweight Division

Former ADCC Submission Wrestling World Champion, and current UFC featherweight fighter, Rani Yahya (16-7) is planning a move back to the bantamweight division after a 1-1 record at 145-lbs in the Octagon. Yahya moved up to the featherweight division after competing as a bantamweight in the WEC, going so far as to face Chase Beebe […]

Yahya vs. Brown Fight for the Troops 2 – Photo by Tracy Lee for Yahoo! Sports

Former ADCC Submission Wrestling World Champion, and current UFC featherweight fighter, Rani Yahya (16-7) is planning a move back to the bantamweight division after a 1-1 record at 145-lbs in the Octagon.

Yahya moved up to the featherweight division after competing as a bantamweight in the WEC, going so far as to face Chase Beebe for the WEC 135-lbs title back in 2007.

One of Yahya’s coaches broke the news to Tatame.com recently.

“He’ll drop to the bantamweight and UFC is already looking for someone for me to fight”, tells Ataíde Junior, his coach at Constrictor Team, confident about returning to the winning streak after a bad sequence in the UFC. “Rani is like a chess match, you can never know what’s going to happen. We get anxious about seeing him fighting”.

The Brazilian debuted in the Octagon at the UFC: Fight for the Troops 2 show one year ago, moving up in weight after two straight losses in the WEC. Yahya would earn a unanimous decision over late replacement Mike Brown at the Texas show. He would then go on to face Chad Mendes last summer at UFC 133, losing by decision to the former No.1 contender.