Bellator Fighting Championships is set to begin it’s sixth season next month starting on March 9, 2012. Part of that new season includes a welterweight title match between current champion Ben ‘Funky’ Askren and season five tournament winner, Douglas ‘The Phenom’ Lima. Both men are set to meet on April 6 at Caesar’s Windsor in […]
Photo by Todd Samson for TapouT magazine
Bellator Fighting Championships is set to begin it’s sixth season next month starting on March 9, 2012.
Part of that new season includes a welterweight title match between current champion Ben ‘Funky’ Askren and season five tournament winner, Douglas ‘The Phenom’ Lima. Both men are set to meet on April 6 at Caesar’s Windsor in Windsor, Ontario in the main event of Bellator 64.
In a recent interview with the DetroitNews.com, both men had a chance to talk about their upcoming bout.
Lima, who has won nine straight including winning and defending the Maximum Fighting Championship title, knows that he’s facing a world class wrestler and expects to fight off his back for the entire bout.
“This fight is going to start when I land on my back,” Lima said.
“I’m not stupid, I know how good his wrestling is, but I expect to land on my back once or twice, but I don’t think that’s going to matter. It’s not going to stop me from winning this fight. If I land a right hand on him, he’s going to go down.”
While Askren, despite complimenting Lima for his abilities, appeared more interested in putting down his last opponent Jay Hieron.
“Jay didn’t have the knockout power,” Askren said. “He doesn’t have that pop Douglas does, but he had significantly better wrestling. … I think his footwork was good. I don’t think Douglas has that great of footwork, but Douglas is probably a lot better on the ground than Jay was. Jay was terrible on the ground. Anytime I got him there, I knew he didn’t know what the hell he was doing. A different challenge, for sure, but better or worse I’m not sure.”
Askren and Hieron fought to a split decision last October with Askren defending his title for the first time. Some felt the decision should have gone the other way. Hieron has asked for an immediate title rematch but was turned down by Bellator, leaving the only venue for getting another title shot would be winning another tournament. Hieron turned down the chance to enter the season six tournament and is currently weighing his options.
Former UFC heavyweight champ Tim ‘The Maine-iac’ Sylvia (30-7) is campaigning to get back into the Octagon, recently releasing a video of him asking for fan support to get him back. The former champ has is 6-1 in his last seven bouts, with six of those matches taking place above the 265-lbs heavyweight limit. Sylvia […]
Former UFC heavyweight champ Tim ‘The Maine-iac’ Sylvia (30-7) is campaigning to get back into the Octagon, recently releasing a video of him asking for fan support to get him back.
The former champ has is 6-1 in his last seven bouts, with six of those matches taking place above the 265-lbs heavyweight limit. Sylvia did make the heavyweight limit for his last victory, and has vowed to stay on weight in order to get back into the Octagon in order to finish his career.
Speaking to Fighters Only magazine, Sylvia talked about why he wanted back in the UFC, as well as some interesting thoughts on former champ Brock Lesnar.
(Sylvia has more to say about Lesnar as well as Matt Hughes, so be sure to check out the full interview by clicking the link)
So you recently started a campaign to try and get back into the UFC. What’s your motivation there, is it a case of looking for the biggest paydays, or wanting the title, or is there just a desire to be back in there full stop?
I am just getting older and I want to finish up my career in the UFC. There’s a lot of great match-ups for me and I feel like that is where I belong. I don’t care about going in there and trying to fight for the title – I’ve done more in the UFC than any other heavyweight except Randy Couture so titles don’t mean anything to me at this stage.
I just want to fight, I love to fight and I think there are some really great matches there for me right now.
The UFC fans haven’t seen you in nearly four years. If you come back to the organisation, what would be different about you?
Well I don’t think anything we saw last time was all that bad. You know when it comes to my fighting experience, when I was in the UFC I was fighting regularly and so my weight was always down and I was fit. But when I go to not fighting regularly my weight starts getting up there and it gets harder to cut, I am coming in at super-heavy and stuff, I just don’t like that.
I want to be heavyweight, not super-heavyweight, and in the UFC I have to be heavyweight so I always stay in shape. And when I am in shape I don’t think there are too many guys out there that can beat me. And you know this isn’t basketball, where you have some bad games but overall that doesn’t matter as long as the season goes good. We fight three times a year and on that night we have to be perfect.
But that doesn’t happen – you have injuries or you are sick, or you just don’t feel yourself or don’t perform well. You don’t get a second chance.
You were basically absent from the UFC for the entirety of Brock Lesnar’s career there right?
Sort of. We tried to get that fight, he came in and fought Frank Mir the night that I fought Nogueira for the interim title. We both lost and so my team tried to pitch me and him fighting each other, or going on The Ultimate Fighter together, but the UFC didn’t want that to happen because they were trying to, I don’t know, protect him or whatever.
Then he fights Heath Herring and gets a title shot which is… well, it is what it is. I don’t know how he got a title shot with a win over Heath and a loss to Mir. Brock Lesnar was made a champion, I definitely think he was a paper champion and no doubt about it.
But it did great things for the UFC, he really helped it explode in popularity because he took that whole crowd of WWE fans and brought them over to the UFC. That’s millions of people; he had some loyal fans and he brought them over. It was a great marketing job by the UFC.
What do you think of Lesnar transitioning into being a mixed martial artist at such a late stage?
He is not a mixed martial artist. No I don’t think he is at all! He is a big strong wrestler who doesn’t like to get hit. He hates to get hit.
Everyone says this about him but is it definitely true?
Yes its very true, I have two different friends – close friends – who were brought in to train with him and that is what they were told. To be a successful striker or stand-up guy you have to get used to getting hit. How do you get used to getting hit? You get hit over and over again in sparring practice.
Its going to suck the first few months but eventually you are gonna get away from that. If he had kept doing that I think he would have gotten to the point where he got comfortable with it.
Despite Sylvia’s hopes of getting back into the Octagon, UFC president Dana White said he wouldn’t be making any offers to ‘The Maine-iac’ anytime soon when asked by reporter Ariel Helwani following this past weeks UFC on FUEL TV 1 event.
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson (32-9) is set to fight in Japan for the first time in six years when he takes on Ryan Bader in the co-main event of UFC 144 on February 26, 2012 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Jackson made it no secret that he wanted […]
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson (32-9) is set to fight in Japan for the first time in six years when he takes on Ryan Bader in the co-main event of UFC 144 on February 26, 2012 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.
Jackson made it no secret that he wanted a chance to fight on this card, to give his Japanese fans one last chance to see him fight.
In his first UFC 144 blog for Yahoo! Sports, ‘Rampage’ talked about his failed attempt at regaining “his” title after losing to Jon Jones at UFC 135, as well as his motivation to battle Bader in Japan.
But I still want my belt back before I retire. I will always think of that belt as mine, even when I’m an old, bald wrinkled ass man. I’m very, very proud of unifying that UFC belt with the PRIDE belt and for that reason a little bit of me will always think of that belt as belonging to me.
But in this fight on February 25, I get the next best thing: I get to fight in Japan for the first time in six years. It’s no secret I love Japan. Japan is where I became a MMA fighter, it is where I made a name for myself and learned how to kick ass. The fans there are so respectful, I can’t wait to perform for them again. I really, really want a sick knockout for them, and maybe even I’ll do my powerbomb if Bader is dumb enough to give me the chance…
Some haters have said now that I didn’t get my belt back after three years of waiting for my shot, I’m not going to be motivated in my fighting career. That is what my English friends call “bollocks”. I am very motivated to kick Bader’s ass. I was a little pissed off and disappointed that I didn’t get my belt back and I was upset with my performance. I’m going to take that out on Ryan Bader and – in front of the Japanese fight fans – put on a great fight.
UFC Octagon girl Brittney Palmer is set to grace this coming March’s issue of Playboy magazine, which goes on sale this Friday. Images of the photos have already made their way onto the internet and ESPN tracked down the 24-year-old Palmer to talk about her upcoming pictorial. Were you nervous during the photo shoot and […]
UFC Octagon girl Brittney Palmer is set to grace this coming March’s issue of Playboy magazine, which goes on sale this Friday.
Images of the photos have already made their way onto the internet and ESPN tracked down the 24-year-old Palmer to talk about her upcoming pictorial.
Were you nervous during the photo shoot and how much exercising did you do beforehand?
“I’m constantly exercising to stay in fighting shape for all of the UFC events, so that really didn’t change. I’ve never posed nude before, so I was a little apprehensive at first. But the Playboy crew on the shoot was so great and supportive, and they made me feel very comfortable on set.”
What’s next for you?
“I’ll be staying in art school for the foreseeable future, and hopefully people will continue to show interest in my artwork. I’m heading to Brazil twice in the next month to film The Ultimate Fighter Brazil, and then I’m looking forward to doing more of the same: working in my art studio painting, continuing to design and be creative, and continuing to make these fun workout videos for Gamma Labs PTF. UFC has opened up many doors for me, and I’m sure gracing the cover of Playboy will do the same. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s around the next corner!”
Check out some of Palmer’s artwork on her recently revamped website BrittneyPalmer.com.
Former Sengoku middleweight champ, and UFC vet, Jorge ‘Sandman’ Santiago (23-10) calls 2011 a “nightmare” having lost both of his Octagon appearances, a TKO loss to Brian Stann at UFC 130 and a decision defeat at the hands of Demian Maia at UFC 136. After his release by the top promotion, Santiago signed a multi-fight […]
Former Sengoku middleweight champ, and UFC vet, Jorge ‘Sandman’ Santiago (23-10) calls 2011 a “nightmare” having lost both of his Octagon appearances, a TKO loss to Brian Stann at UFC 130 and a decision defeat at the hands of Demian Maia at UFC 136.
After his release by the top promotion, Santiago signed a multi-fight deal with the Titan Fighting Championship promotion and is set to debut on March 2nd versus fellow Brazilian Leonardo Pecanha.
Speaking to Tatame.com, Santiago talks about his “nightmare” year and his hopes to return to the Octagon by stringing together a few good wins in 2012.
“I’m strong, my head’s good. 2011 was a nightmare for me… I couldn’t have a good performance, I had many issues because I changes gyms, personal things… I’m not undermining the guys who beat me up, but I know I’m capable of defeating them all… ”
“I’ve talked to Joe Silva (UFC matchmaker) and he told me to fight twice and get good wins, showing I’m good to go, and then I can talk to them again”, reveals. “UFC is like that: you are not scoring, you have to get in the line again. To assure your sport in there you must win… My priority is do good fights and win. There’s no other way, if you wanna get good wins and people to know you, you gotta be in the UFC”.
UFC middleweight champ Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva (31-4) is expected to face Chael Sonnen this summer in Brazil for his next title defense, a rematch of their August 2010 bout at UFC 117. Fans know Sonnen to be quite the trash-talker, which has helped to increase the amount of interest for all of his fights, […]
Photo by Getty Images via Yahoo! Sports
UFC middleweight champ Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva (31-4) is expected to face Chael Sonnen this summer in Brazil for his next title defense, a rematch of their August 2010 bout at UFC 117.
Fans know Sonnen to be quite the trash-talker, which has helped to increase the amount of interest for all of his fights, but more particularly the rematch with Silva.
‘The Spider’ though, feels that all of Sonnen’s talk is actually “bad for the sport” of mixed martial arts and says that Sonnen has crossed the line by talking about his family.
“Yeah of course, Chael talks too much. He talked about my family. He’s got no respect for my wife. No respect for the people in Brazil. It’s a problem,” Silva said. “I understand it’s a promotion, but this is no promotion. This is bad. I don’t like this. The people in Brazil don’t like this. It’s bad for the sport.”
Soares brought it a little stronger.
“He can say whatever he wants to say, but he has to be prepared to face everything that he’s saying when he steps inside the ring in June. I think Chael is going to experience something he’s never experienced before,” Soares said. “[…] He’s going to feel such an intense pressure walking into that stadium with probably 55,000 fans … he’s going to feel that.”
Silva and Soares also talked about the release of UFC Undisputed 3, the work that was done to mimic Silva as a fighter, and more.
