Tweet Former Strikeforce middleweight champ Cung Le (7-1) is set to make his Octagon debut on November 19th when he faces former UFC champ Vitor Belfort in the main event of UFC 139. Le will fight in front of his hometown crowd in San Jose, where all eight of his professional fights have taken place, […]
Former Strikeforce middleweight champ Cung Le (7-1) is set to make his Octagon debut on November 19th when he faces former UFC champ Vitor Belfort in the main event of UFC 139. Le will fight in front of his hometown crowd in San Jose, where all eight of his professional fights have taken place, after a year-and-a-half layoff.
Le was in Cincinnati, Ohio this past Saturday to watch four of his teammates walk out of the Strikeforce cage victorious, and it’s a trend he intends to keep going when he finally meets ‘The Phenom’ in November.
Le spoke to Heavy.com about his upcoming fight and how he’s booked the time off from acting in movies to prepare for a Belfort who he feels “is very dangerous, but I’m very dangerous too.”
“What Vitor says doesn’t bother me. He can talk all he wants. We’ll take care of business on November 19th. Let him talk. I don’t like to talk so he can do all the talking. I’ll let him have that job and we will work it out in San Jose. Vitor is very dangerous, but I’m very dangerous too. We have two dangerous guys in the ring and we are going to see which one of us is more dangerous.”
“Every time I commit to something I always go 185%. Right now I’m not doing any movies and won’t while I prepare. There will be no distractions and I’m just going to focus on this fight.”
“My gym is Cung Le’s AKA. I’m part of the AKA team and I’m going to keep my training there. Everyone saw us tonight. We dominated and we won all of our fights on this card. I’m going to AKA to train smart, hard and make sure I stay injury free. I’m very proud of my teammates that fought tonight and it was just awesome to see.”
Tweet Norwegian heavyweight Jon Olav Einemo (6-2) is hoping that Zuffa and his management, the Golden Glory gym, can resolve their differences, as the former ADCC champ hopes to return to the Octagon one day. Einemo, along with Valentijn Overeem and former women’s champ Marloes Coenen, were all released by Zuffa in August. The chief […]
Norwegian heavyweight Jon Olav Einemo (6-2) is hoping that Zuffa and his management, the Golden Glory gym, can resolve their differences, as the former ADCC champ hopes to return to the Octagon one day.
Einemo, along with Valentijn Overeem and former women’s champ Marloes Coenen, were all released by Zuffa in August. The chief reason for their dismissal, according to UFC President Dana White, was due to Golden Glory’s business practices.
Now that Zuffa and Golden Glory are making headway, with the recent signing of Alistair Overeem, Einemo hopes to be back fighting on a UFC card.
“I think my management is very busy. My feeling is that it’s going the right way. I really hope and believe that this thing with Zuffa [is being worked out]. I don’t think it’s going to be any problem anymore; I think it’s already fixed.”
“It’s a very exciting division for me to go to,” he said. “My last fight, I feel I have a lot more capability than that. It was five years since I fight the last time; the first time in a big show again. So I think I [can] make some trouble in that division.”
Einemo debuted in June at UFC 131 against Dave ‘Pee Wee’ Herman at the Vancouver, Canada event, losing by second round TKO in a bout that saw both men earn an extra $70,000 for “Fight of the Night”.
Quote via ESPN.com, check out the rest of the interview there and see who Einemo would like to be matched against if he does return.
Tweet Bellator welterweight Brent Weedman (18-6-1) had a disappointing showing during the promotions season four tournament, losing to Jay Hieron by unanimous decision in the semi-finals. Many felt the fight was a lot closer than the judges 29-28 scores across the board indicated, some going so far as naming Weedman the winner. That defeat ended […]
Bellator welterweight Brent Weedman (18-6-1) had a disappointing showing during the promotions season four tournament, losing to Jay Hieron by unanimous decision in the semi-finals.
Many felt the fight was a lot closer than the judges 29-28 scores across the board indicated, some going so far as naming Weedman the winner. That defeat ended a ten fight win streak for the 27-year-old.
Weedman has since recovered mentally from that loss and will begin that journey once more this Saturday as part of Bellator’s season five welterweight tournament. At the Bellator 49 event, he is set to meet Chris Lozano at the Atlantic City event, and having learned his lesson about leaving a fight in the judges hands, will look to finish his opponent.
Also taking part in the tournament is former MFC champ Douglas Lima, who Weedman defeated back in 2008 at an AFL event in Atlanta. Lima would very much like a chance to avenge that loss and Weedman would like to give it to him, but he’s got to finish Lozano first.
Speaking to MMAMania.com, Weedman talked about both of these subjects.
Every one of your career victories had been a stoppage coming into that tournament. With that close decision victory over Dan Hornbuckle and the controversial decision loss to Jay Hieron, does that make you want to not get a decision that much more coming into this tournament?
Brent Weedman: It does, more than anything. If you want to win by points, go play basketball. I’m not the guy who’s in the cage trying to score points here, score points there. Dan Hornbuckle is the most awkward human being I’ve ever faced in terms of awkward style and awkward body type. I had a very difficult time putting him away. I had that rear naked choke in the second round but that was a day late and a dollar short. Against Jay Hieron, man, I just didn’t bring my track shoes. I was trying to get him but I had to chase him around the cage. It lit a fire under my ass thinking, “well, that effort isn’t going to get it done, clearly. I’ve got to do it even more.”
Coming into this tournament, one of the new entrants into the field was Douglas Lima. Going back through your record, your fight against Douglas Lima was the turning point of your career. Can you talk about that situation, because that’s where you really took off.
Brent Weedman: That was a big experience for me. At the time, it was my biggest fight not only in status but there were 6000 people, it was the Phillips Arena where the Atlanta Hawks play and 5999 of those people were there to see Douglas Lima. That was a big fight for me, to shut up the home crowd, build some new fans. That was a huge turning point for me, find out what my potential was and scrapping with a guy that was undoubtedly good. I was at a journeyman point of my career and Douglas Lima was a really big name especially in Atlanta at the time which is where he trains.
I know he wants the rematch really bad, he said it when he came over to Bellator in the press release so I’m bound by honor to give it to him. I really hope, and far be it from me to say I’m looking past Chris Lozano or anything like that, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I hoped I got Douglas Lima in the later rounds because that would kill two birds with one stone. If I don’t fight him in this tournament, I’d probably have to fight him another time because he wants it and I owe it to him.
Tweet Strikeforce heavyweight Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva (16-2) is set to face Olympic Wrestler Daniel Cormier this Saturday, September 10, in the semi-finals of the World Grand Prix Heavyweight tournament. Silva had been set to face Alistair Overeem till he was pulled from the tournament and replaced by Cormier, leaving ‘Bigfoot’ to change his game plan […]
Strikeforce heavyweight Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva (16-2) is set to face Olympic Wrestler Daniel Cormier this Saturday, September 10, in the semi-finals of the World Grand Prix Heavyweight tournament.
Silva had been set to face Alistair Overeem till he was pulled from the tournament and replaced by Cormier, leaving ‘Bigfoot’ to change his game plan mid-camp from fighting a striker to fighting a wrestler.
Despite all of this, Silva feels that he’ll make it to the finals and is hoping that he’ll be standing in the cage across from Josh Barnett.
What do you guess it’ll happen on the other semifinals, between Barnett and Kharitonov?
It won’t be an easy fight for Josh. Kharitonov has pretty heavy hands and he’s much experienced, just like Josh is. He’s really experience, he’s been fighting since Pride. He really want to win this, and people could tell it when he fought Arlovski and he put on a great show, but I’m cheering for Josh. I guess he’ll win, he’s much more complete. He’s an athlete who plays well all kinds of games. He’s like a chamaleon, he’s good anywhere the fight goes.
Differently of him, I’m cheering for him. Unlike him, because he’s a guy who wants Cormier to win. Also, I read an interview on which he said he’s fighting Cormier on the finals. Unlike him, I want him to win. First because he’s a better fighter, and second I want to fight him on the finale. I guess he doesn’t want to fight me. He must be crossing his fingers so that Daniel Cormier beats me, but I won’t make it easy on him.
Josh gave an interview on which he claimed your only advantage is your size. What do you think of that?
That’s funny, each one is better in one area. Dos Santos’ advantage is his hands, which are heavy. Nogueira’s advantage is his ground game, which is pretty sharp. Each one is good in one area. He said my advantage is my size, so let it be. Let’s go there and show him sometimes size ain’t just gonna do it.
Tweet With the UFC signing the last of the world’s top heavyweights, former Strikeforce, DREAM, and K-1 champion Alistair ‘The Reem’ Overeem (35-11, 1NC) is set to make his Octagon debut on December 30 in Las Vegas. Overeem is set to make that debut against former champ, Brock Lesnar, who ‘The Reem’ feels is “one […]
With the UFC signing the last of the world’s top heavyweights, former Strikeforce, DREAM, and K-1 champion Alistair ‘The Reem’ Overeem (35-11, 1NC) is set to make his Octagon debut on December 30 in Las Vegas.
Overeem is set to make that debut against former champ, Brock Lesnar, who ‘The Reem’ feels is “one of those dream matchups.”
The Dutch fighter talks to UFC.com about signing with the top promotion as well as his upcoming debut.
“I think this is big news and a big development,” he told UFC.com. “It’s one of those dream matchups – you have two big guys, one of them specializes in wrestling, one specializes in striking, and everybody wants to see it. There was a lot spoken about this dream matchup in the past, but it couldn’t materialize because I wasn’t in the UFC, but now that I am, anything is possible. I already received a lot of emails and messages from people who congratulated me; they’re happy I joined, and they’ve very happy with this matchup.”
“I think I have a lot of great matchups,” he said. “I think any one of these guys is willing to fight and not evade the fight, but truly fight and show their best, so I think that ultimately the winners will be the fans. They’re gonna see some great matchups with me in the future and I’m excited about that.”
“He’s a very strong, very dangerous, and very explosive heavyweight,” said Overeem of Lesnar. “I think he’s kind of unique in the way he operates and fights, and there are some weaknesses in his game, but I think everybody has weaknesses. Overall, I see him as a very dangerous heavyweight.”
Tweet UFC President Dana White is shown taking a phone call during Wednesday’s UFC 137 pre-fight press conference from Cesar Gracie, Nick Diaz manager. Diaz was a “no-show” again on for the UFC 137 presser, forcing White to pull him from the card and replace him with Carlos Condit. The frustrated UFC President offered his […]
UFC President Dana White is shown taking a phone call during Wednesday’s UFC 137 pre-fight press conference from Cesar Gracie, Nick Diaz manager.
Diaz was a “no-show” again on for the UFC 137 presser, forcing White to pull him from the card and replace him with Carlos Condit.
The frustrated UFC President offered his thoughts to the gathered media explaining that he’s got to sit down and ponder what to do about the former Strikeforce champ.
“I’m still blown away by this thing. I’ve got to take a couple of days and figure this thing out.”
“Nick Diaz obviously can’t handle the pressure of a main event of this magnitude. That’s what I think. I mean, we all sit here, everybody, you pass the mic around the round (and) we’ll come up with ideas on why he’s not here. It’s absolutely insane.”
“The kid flew out, signed a contract, and sat in my office and told me he wanted this, and he was going to do everything that we needed him to do. And we’re not asking him to do anything that Georges St-Pierre isn’t. So, the whole thing makes no sense. It’s beyond comprehension.”
“I’ve been dealing with fighters since I was 19 years old. They miss flights. You name it, it happens. We fix it. But after you continually keep trying to make the thing happen. Then I woke up this morning, and waited, and waited, and when I realized that he wasn’t coming to Vegas, that was when I said, ‘That’s it.’”
Listen to more of White’s comments from Wednesday’s press conference in a highlight video at UFC.com.
Props to MMAjunkie.com for transcribing White’s comments.
Former Strikeforce middleweight champ Cung Le (7-1) is set to make his Octagon debut on November 19th when he faces former UFC champ Vitor Belfort in the main event of UFC 139. Le will fight in front of his hometown crowd in San Jose, where all eight of his professional fights have taken place, after a year-and-a-half layoff.
