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Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Sees Some of Himself in Conor McGregor

You can count professional wrester-turned-A-list actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson among fans of the UFC’s breakout featherweight star, Conor McGregor. Speaking with Ireland’s Entertainment.ie during his media rounds for the film San Andreas, Johnso…

“I love that guy,” he said. “I love Aldo too…In Aldo, there’s a quiet confidence and in Conor the confidence is not quiet and it reminds me of how I was in the WWE. I was just bold, talking [expletive] and there was nothing I wouldn’t say.”

A year ago, McGregor became one of the UFC’s top stars when he was penned to headline a card in his hometown of Dublin, Ireland opposite Cole Miller (who was later replaced by Diego Brandao). The event’s success instantly had fans around the world buzzing over the Dublin-born fighter and he was quickly anointed as one of the most exciting potential opponents for Aldo, the long-reigning featherweight champion.

Aldo is undefeated since 2005 and has had little difficulty in maintaining that streak. He captured the WEC featherweight belt in 2009 (which would become the undisputed UFC featherweight title in 2010) and has defended his crown nine times, most recently from Chad Mendes at UFC 179.

Johnson, of course, is best known by sports fans for his career in the WWE where he won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship eight times and had history-making rivalries with Steve Austin and Triple H. He has been a fairly regular sight for MMA fans, however, as he appears at events, discusses the fights on social media and occasionally stars in movies alongside women’s MMA pioneers.

McGregor is, of course, poised to face Aldo in July at UFC 189 and Johnson is excited for the fight. “I think the fight is going to be incredible,” he said. “At times I think I have seen, we’ve all seen that by the way, Conor getting under Aldo’s skin, it becomes an edge.”

Aldo vs. McGregor is one of the biggest rivalries in recent UFC history, and has shined a new light on the featherweight division that wasn’t there 18 months ago. The fight will headline the UFC’s International Fight Week 2015 card alongside the welterweight title bout between Robbie Lawler and Rory MacDonald.

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Friday Links: Matt Brown Drops an R-Bomb (?), Vitor Belfort Goes Hard on Instagram, The Rock Smacks Down Bullies + More

(Our friend Georgie wrote a “Hot Mess Guide” to surviving the summer, and it’s awesome, and you should all read it here.)

Video: Despite Best Effort, UFC on FOX 12’s Matt Brown Puts Foot in Mouth Again (MMAJunkie)

That’s Not How You Cut a Promo, Vitor… (CP Twitter)

…Okay, That’s a Little Better (MMAFighting)

Report: MMA Fighter Cleared of Jan. 1 Homicide Charge in New Mexico (Sherdog)

Corissa Furr to Guest Ring Card for Bellator Tonight; #SPIKEFORCE Transformation Continues (BabesofMMA)

Renan Barao Says He Woke Up in the Locker Room at UFC 173 (BleacherReport)

30 Femme Fatales That You’d Totally Love To Get Your Ass Kicked By (AskMen)

Screen Junkies Show: The Rock Smacks Down High School Bully (ScreenJunkies)

10 Cutest Kids in Cosplay (Mommyish)

Video: Joe Moravsky Breaks ‘American Ninja Warrior’ Course, Sets Record Time (Radass)

The 50 Funniest Caucasian Gangster Photos Of All Time (WorldwideInterweb)

Interview: Cali Carter Discusses the Highs and Lows of Porn Life (EveryJoe)

The 20 Dumbest Criminals of All Time (PopHangover)

3 People You Always Meet in MMORPGs (DoubleViking)

Amusing Catfight Goes Next Level With Greatest Moment in GIF History (Guyism)

(Our friend Georgie wrote a “Hot Mess Guide” to surviving the summer, and it’s awesome, and you should all read it here.)

Video: Despite Best Effort, UFC on FOX 12′s Matt Brown Puts Foot in Mouth Again (MMAJunkie)

That’s Not How You Cut a Promo, Vitor… (CP Twitter)

…Okay, That’s a Little Better (MMAFighting)

Report: MMA Fighter Cleared of Jan. 1 Homicide Charge in New Mexico (Sherdog)

Corissa Furr to Guest Ring Card for Bellator Tonight; #SPIKEFORCE Transformation Continues (BabesofMMA)

Renan Barao Says He Woke Up in the Locker Room at UFC 173 (BleacherReport)

30 Femme Fatales That You’d Totally Love To Get Your Ass Kicked By (AskMen)

Screen Junkies Show: The Rock Smacks Down High School Bully (ScreenJunkies)

10 Cutest Kids in Cosplay (Mommyish)

Video: Joe Moravsky Breaks ‘American Ninja Warrior’ Course, Sets Record Time (Radass)

The 50 Funniest Caucasian Gangster Photos Of All Time (WorldwideInterweb)

Interview: Cali Carter Discusses the Highs and Lows of Porn Life (EveryJoe)

The 20 Dumbest Criminals of All Time (PopHangover)

3 People You Always Meet in MMORPGs (DoubleViking)

Amusing Catfight Goes Next Level With Greatest Moment in GIF History (Guyism)

Ronda Rousey Hoping to Become ‘The Female Rock’

Do you smell what Ronda Rousey is cooking?
Hollywood casting directors have certainly picked up the scent, and they obviously can’t get enough of the UFC women’s bantamweight champ.
She’ll appear alongside a slew of legendary action-m…

Do you smell what Ronda Rousey is cooking?

Hollywood casting directors have certainly picked up the scent, and they obviously can’t get enough of the UFC women’s bantamweight champ.

She’ll appear alongside a slew of legendary action-movie icons like Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Jason Statham and Wesley Snipes in The Expendables 3 on Aug. 15. She just wrapped up filming roles in next year’s Fast & Furious 7 and Entourage movies. Warner Bros. is also working to acquire the rights to The Athena Project and cast Rousey in a leading role that could potentially spawn sequels.

Hollywood is in dire need of a bona fide female action star, and Rousey is completely confident she fits the bill. When speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, she said she hopes to be a mix between The Rock and Milla Jovovich:

I never thought that being an action movie star was in the cards for me. My agent, [WME’s] Brad Slater, kept telling me, ‘You’re going to be the female Rock.’ Then I started to believe it could be a reality. I don’t half-ass anything. If I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it to be the best in the world at it. A lot of actresses appear in action movies, but there aren’t any female action stars. I love Angelina Jolie, but … it’s about believability for me. Milla Jovovich is one of my favorite actresses — The Fifth Element really opened my eyes, and the Resident Evil franchise was amazing. So definitely a mix of Milla Jovovich and The Rock is what I’m going for. People love chick fights. They love tough, empowered women. And there is a demand. People just don’t know it.

Along with appearing in multiple Hollywood roles, Rousey continues to devote a large chunk of her time to training and defending her UFC title.

Her walk to the cage took longer than her last two fights did combined. Georges St-Pierre was in the cage longer against Johny Hendricks than Rousey has been in her entire professional career. Just let those stats sink in for a moment. On Wednesday night, she was awarded an ESPY for Best Female Athlete.

Rousey’s continued success on the mainstream stage bolsters UFC President Dana White’s claim that she is the biggest star the UFC has ever had. No other qualifiers were offered from White when making that statement at a media luncheon, according to MMAWeekly.

To think, Rousey was just an unknown contender vying for a shot at Miesha Tate’s Strikeforce title a little over two years ago.

In as little time, she has completely revamped the way the world views women’s MMA, and she could one day do the same for modern-day action films.

Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.

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The 15 Worst Pro Wrestling Gimmick Costumes

(Nothing says “tough guy” like fake muscles and a landing strip.)

By Shep Ramsey

Ah, professional wrestling. You blaze into our lives when MMA fails us, reminding everyone that sometimes, it’s totally okay to put on ridiculous matches with absurd stipulations and objectify women.

On second thought, we can’t even tell the difference between you both.

At least wrestling allows us to tune in and out, without the pressure of having to watch every single event. The reason we love pro wrestling so much is because, like David Wooderson says about high school girls in Dazed & Confused, we get older and they stay the same age.

If anything, pro wrestling has become more mature than its fanbase, despite the WWE’s PG-rating. One thing we have to deal with less are the bad costumes — painted-on gimmicks that were never going to work, no matter how hard they were forced down our throats.

Here are 15 of the most senseless and detestable costumes inflicted upon some good wrestlers, and some really bad ones.

15. The Goon

Guys like Tie Domi and Bob Probert were NHL sluggers in the mid-1990s, so maybe that explains The Goon’s odd inclusion into the world of pro wrestling. It would have been cool if this guy came to the ring in actual skates, instead of those platform boots that are mostly favored by goth teenagers and drag queens these days.

14. Rocky Maivia

(Nothing says “tough guy” like fake muscles and a landing strip.)

By Shep Ramsey

On second thought, we can’t even tell the difference between you both.

Here are 15 of the most senseless and detestable costumes inflicted upon some good wrestlers, and some really bad ones.

15. The Goon

14. Rocky Maivia

He’s one of the most popular wrestlers to ever live and he could be the greatest of all-time, but unfortunately, Dwayne Johnson’s pre-Rock costume screams “lead role in a porn spoof of Braveheart.” Seriously, what in the name of Christ were the wardrobe specialists trying to do here? No wonder fans wanted him to die. Although when it’s all said and done, the joke’s on us for not making $44 million a year to star in a profusion of C-list movies.

13. Max Moon

Max Moon is a deleted scene from The Running Man.

12. Phantasio

The most frustrating thing about Phantasio was that his build could have led to something further down the road. I’m not sure he was a good wrestler, because I can’t really remember and the last thing I want to do is give him three minutes more of my time on YouTube, but had they ditched the Phantom of The Opera shtick, this guy could have, well, been someone else. He’s just so creepy, like someone who strangely appears at the end of your wet dream for absolutely no reason.

11. Shark Boy

When TNA wasn’t worse than a Friends spinoff, they were pretty fun to watch. One of their wrestlers, Shark Boy, had commenced his gimmick in the later stages of WCW (what better place to start) and thrived under the Tennessee-based company. He was more or less a really skinny dude who wore a shark mask and spandex that looked as if he was trying to be a shark. Never has a wrestler gone so far with a child’s dollar-store Halloween costume.

The Rock on Brock Lesnar: ‘What He Did in MMA Was Epic and Historic’

For all the Kimbo Slices and James Toneys of the UFC, there will always be Brock Lesnar: the circus experiment that went right.
In the world of professional wrestling, Lesnar was known as “The Next Big Thing,” a fairly elementary monik…

For all the Kimbo Slices and James Toneys of the UFC, there will always be Brock Lesnar: the circus experiment that went right.

In the world of professional wrestling, Lesnar was known as “The Next Big Thing,” a fairly elementary moniker that would one day prove true in the living, breathing sports world.

Initially, the hardcore MMA community thought it was a joke when the World Wrestling Entertainment superstar made the decision to turn in his ballet boots for a pair of four-ounce gloves. Pro wrestling is rehearsed brilliance that has the potential to go wrong night in and night out, but it’s nearly impossible to replicate the level of fear and anxiety an athlete faces before stepping into the cage against a trained fighter.

But Lesnar, a former NCAA Division I wrestling champion, stuck out his gargantuan chest and embraced the challenge. A common belief in combat sports is that fighters are born, not made.

What other way is there to explain the improbable run Lesnar would go on?

After three professional fights and a little more than a year’s experience, he fought and defeated UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture for the heavyweight title in November 2008. He went on to defend the title twice before succumbing to current UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez at UFC 121 in October 2010 and former Strikeforce champ Alistair Overeem at UFC 141 in December 2011.

After incurring back-to-back losses and a serious medical condition, Lesnar closed the chapter on his four-year MMA career by announcing his retirement from fighting.

Despite the fact that he won the UFC title, one has to wonder what might have been if he had realized his full potential. What if he started his MMA career at a younger age? What if he was never diagnosed with diverticulitis, an intestinal disorder that led to his immediate exit from fighting?

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, an avid MMA fan and future WWE Hall of Famer, calls Lesnar’s MMA accomplishments “epic and historic.”

“I don’t know if anybody will ever accomplish what he’s accomplished in the heavyweight division in that short amount of time,” Johnson says on UFC Fight Pass’ collection of Lesnar’s fights, per Fox Sports. “Had it not been for the unfortunate issue he had to deal with his stomach, who knows what could have happened if he continued to train, and continued to hone in on his skills. What he did was epic and historic.”

Even today, it’s easy to reminisce about the good old days of a dim-lit arena and Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” cranked to the max, as Lesnar’s hulking figure stomped angrily down to the Octagon.

The mere thought of an individual winning the UFC title and becoming one of the biggest draws in the history of MMA in such a short period of time used to be preposterous. However, things were different for Lesnar, as fans accepted all of his absurdities and outlandish feats without batting an eyelash.

He went from being “The Next Big Thing” to the thing in MMA, and it only took him a year to do it.

Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Ronda Rousey’s Mainstream Appeal Will Grow Even More with the Rock’s Backing

Ronda Rousey has one huge fan—literally and figuratively speaking—in Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The part-time WWE Superstar, and top-grossing actor in the whole wide world, showed his support for Rousey in her upcoming bout with rival Miesh…

How did The Rock show his allegiance to Team Rousey? How else? In a Twitpic that also shows off his hulkish frame. Black and white filter added for dramatic effect.

Aside from showing support to his co-star of Fast and Furious 7, The Rock was also reciprocating the Twitter love Rousey showed him in August with this image.

Rousey will take on Tate in the co-main event at UFC 168 at the MGM Grand. The show will be the biggest pay-per-view of the year in mixed martial arts and one of the biggest of all time.

The bout with Tate is second in the event’s pecking order to the mega rematch between middleweight champion Chris Weidman and MMA legend Anderson Silva.

Being backed by a star as big as The Rock will only help Rousey‘s fame grow more than it already has. She’s already almost solely responsible for the rise of women’s MMA into America’s consciousness. The fact that she’s been so successful, and doesn’t look like the way one would stereotype a female mixed martial artist, only helps her star grow.

This will be the second time Rousey and Tate have tangled. In March 2012, Rousey defeated Tate while the two were still competing in Strikeforce. After a war of words on the last season of The Ultimate Fighter—where both women were coaches—Tate will get her chance to avenge the loss and dethrone Rousey.

Wouldn’t it be cool if during The Rock’s next stint with the WWE, he started using Rousey‘s signature arm bar as a submission? I can just hear Michael Cole screaming right now, “he learned this from his Fast and Furious 7 co-star!!”

Maybe not.

In any case, this is a big-time endorsement that Rousey can only stand to benefit from. Now she just has to take care of business and make The Rock proud.

Follow me, I like sports where people fight.

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