And while Kai’s story ended in a murder charge, it appears that Riddle is destined for the slightly-more-dignified world of regional MMA (that was a joke, nerds, so please fight the urge to lose your shit in the comments section). News broke earlier today that “Deep Waters” has signed with Titan Fighting Championships — not to be confused with Legacy Fighting Championships, who Riddle almost fought for before Bellator bought out his contract — and will face fellow UFC vet Michael Kuiper in the co-main event of LFC 27 in February.
If I were a gambling man, however, I’d say that you’d be better off placing money on any currently scheduled UFC squash match title fight than on the likelihood of seeing Riddle actually show up for this thing. Although Titan FC CEO Jeff Aronson insists that Riddle is “…being exceptionally cooperative” thus far, he probably just spoke to Riddle after he had smoked a particularly potent strain of Cali Kush. Matter of fact, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if Riddle pulls out of this fight tomorrow and claims that he thought he was receiving a role in the next Clash of the Titans movie the entire time.
And while Kai’s story ended in a murder charge, it appears that Riddle is destined for the slightly-more-dignified world of regional MMA (that was a joke, nerds, so please fight the urge to lose your shit in the comments section). News broke earlier today that “Deep Waters” has signed with Titan Fighting Championships — not to be confused with Legacy Fighting Championships, who Riddle almost fought for before Bellator bought out his contract — and will face fellow UFC vet Michael Kuiper in the co-main event of LFC 27 in February.
If I were a gambling man, however, I’d say that you’d be better off placing money on any currently scheduled UFC squash match title fight than on the likelihood of seeing Riddle actually show up for this thing. Although Titan FC CEO Jeff Aronson insists that Riddle is “…being exceptionally cooperative” thus far, he probably just spoke to Riddle after he had smoked a particularly potent strain of Cali Kush. Matter of fact, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if Riddle pulls out of this fight tomorrow and claims that he thought he was receiving a role in the next Clash of the Titans movie the entire time.
But for now, Riddle will square off with Kuiper, a 12-3 middleweight out of the Netherlands who dropped 3 out of 4 fights while in the UFC and is currently riding back-to-back guillotine choke losses. But what do you think, Nation? Will Riddle re-retire before ever stepping into the cage, or will he “SMASH! SMASH! SUUH-MAAASH!” Kuiper in his first post-UFC fight?
You may have heard that former UFC weigh-in specialistAnthony “Rumble” Johnson was set to make his debut at “RumbleWeight” last night at Titan Fighting Championship (TFC) 24 in Kansas City, Kansas. Well, he did. The former welterweight Johnson made the 205lb light heavyweight and battered Esteves Jones until he secured a 2nd round stoppage in the TFC main event.
But we were more interested in seeing how submission grappling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu world champion Braulio Estima would do in his MMA debut, anyway – especially after Renzo Gracie told this writer yesterday when he visited him to tape an episode of the soon-coming podcast, The Conversation, that Estima had dropped over twenty pounds to make welterweight and then put it all back on for the fight. Renzo said that it was the first time Estima had ever made such a weight cut.
Estima is the reigning top dog in submission grappling and could conceivably stay that way for a long time. Instead, he decided to test the waters in mixed martial arts.
His first test was Chris Holland, a fighter who went into the contest with eight pro fights to Estima’s none. In the end, Estima’s lifetime of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu prevailed as he put Holland to sleep with an arm triangle choke.
You may have heard that former UFC weigh-in specialistAnthony “Rumble” Johnson was set to make his debut at “RumbleWeight” last night at Titan Fighting Championship (TFC) 24 in Kansas City, Kansas. Well, he did. The former welterweight Johnson made the 205lb light heavyweight limit and then battered Esteves Jones until he secured a 2nd round stoppage in the TFC main event.
But we were more interested in seeing how submission grappling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu world champion Braulio Estima would do in his MMA debut, anyway – especially after Renzo Gracie told this writer yesterday when he visited him to tape an episode of the soon-coming podcast, The Conversation, that Estima had dropped over twenty pounds to make welterweight and then put it all back on for the fight. Renzo said that it was the first time Estima had ever made such a weight cut.
Estima is the reigning top dog in submission grappling and could conceivably stay that way for a long time. Instead, he decided to test the waters in mixed martial arts.
His first test was Chris Holland, a fighter who went into the contest with eight pro fights to Estima’s none. In the end, Estima’s lifetime of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu prevailed as he put Holland to sleep with an arm triangle choke.
As you will see from the fight video above, Estima clearly is only comfortable with wrestling and submissions at this point in his MMA career. But he prepares with Renzo at his academy as well as with the Blackzilians, in Florida. So with the right attitude and enough years of experience, we might even see him start winning MMA fights with counter right hook KO’s.
At one point the most dominant bantamweight in the history of the sport, Torres ends his UFC stint with an underwhelming record of 2-2, including decision wins over Antonio Banuelos and Nick Pace, and losses to McDonald and Demetrious Johnson. Prior to that, Torres spent three fruitful years in the WEC, where he won the promotion’s 135-pound belt and successfully defended it three times before a pair of stoppage losses to Brian Bowles and Joseph Benavidez permanently dethroned him.
At one point the most dominant bantamweight in the history of the sport, Torres ends his UFC stint with an underwhelming record of 2-2, including decision wins over Antonio Banuelos and Nick Pace, and losses to McDonald and Demetrious Johnson. Prior to that, Torres spent three fruitful years in the WEC, where he won the promotion’s 135-pound belt and successfully defended it three times before a pair of stoppage losses to Brian Bowles and Joseph Benavidez permanently dethroned him.
As Torres wrote on his website, “My next fight will be in Hammond, Indiana for Titan Fighting Championship on November the 2nd. I am excited to continue fighting, to regain my focus and to get back to what made me a champion. A special thank you to my manager, Glenn Robinson, my trainer, Firas Zahabi, my training partners, and all the staff at the UFC. I have dedicated my whole life to mixed martial arts and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. From teaching, to training, and fighting from the lowest to the highest levels, my passion in life is to be the best that I can be. Until November 2nd…”
Fresh off a unanimous decision victory over a Carl’s Jr., wait, I meant Dave Branch at Titan Fighting Championship 22, it looks like an opponent, date, and location has been set for Anthony Johnson’s light heavyweight debut. Johnson will be squaring off against 8-3 KOTC veteran Esteves Jones on August 24th at the Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas, at Titan Fighting Championships 24. The chance to finally see Johnson fighting somewhere around his actual weight has to inspire confidence that he will actually make weight this time, a feat in and of itself that “Rumble” has failed to do in his past twofights, and about every other fight before that.
When asked to comment on his newfound diet, Johnson could only mumble “It’s great” through a mouthful of Steak-umms.
Regardless of his training/diet regimen, Johnson should have little trouble putting away Jones, who holds a notable win over Darrill “Titties” Schoonover and no one else. Then again, his nickname is “Quiet Riot”, who were arguably one of the better mainstream metal bands of the 80’s, so…honestly, I don’t really know where I was going with that. Jones is a dead man.
But even better than the news that Johnson may actually defeat an opponent without having to hand over 20% of his purse afterward is the fact that also on the card, a certain BJJ legend will be making his MMA debut.
Details are after the jump.
(Why yes, Bas, I *will* have another bear claw.)
Fresh off a unanimous decision victory over a Carl’s Jr., wait, I meant Dave Branch at Titan Fighting Championship 22, it looks like an opponent, date, and location has been set for Anthony Johnson’s light heavyweight debut. Johnson will be squaring off against 8-3 KOTC veteran Esteves Jones on August 24th at the Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas, at Titan Fighting Championships 24. The chance to finally see Johnson fighting somewhere around his actual weight has to inspire confidence that he will actually make weight this time, a feat in and of itself that “Rumble” has failed to do in his past twofights, and about every other fight before that.
When asked to comment on his newfound diet, Johnson could only mumble “It’s great” through a mouthful of Steak-umms.
Regardless of his training/diet regimen, Johnson should have little trouble putting away Jones, who holds a notable win over Darrill “Titties” Schoonover and no one else. Then again, his nickname is “Quiet Riot”, who were arguably one of the better mainstream metal bands of the 80′s, so…honestly, I don’t really know where I was going with that. Jones is a dead man.
But even better than the news that Johnson may actually defeat an opponent without having to hand over 20% of his purse afterward is the fact that also on the card, a certain BJJ legend will be making his MMA debut.
Possibly in an effort to finally get that match with Nick Diaz, two time ADCC champion (among many, many other things) Braulio Estima will be making his MMA debut at TFC 24 as well. Fighting at 170 lbs., Estima will try to avoid the powerful hands of Chris Holland, a 5-3 knockout artist who most recently dispatched Phil Baroni in the second round of their ROF 43 scrap back in June. Estima, who last competed and defeated former Strikeforce middleweight champion Ronaldo Souza at the 2011 ADCC Absolute Trials, stated that his debut is less about achieving a title and all the glory that comes with it, and more about testing the waters of a whole new sport:
Georges St-Pierre is at the top of this weight class. But still, I like the challenge. I’m already very successful in other areas, I have a successful gym in Birmingham, and I do very well with my grappling career, so this move to MMA is not about the money. It is not about fame. It is about pushing myself and seeing how far I can go in this new area. I am having fun training with the Blackzilians and learning MMA. I want to enjoy the ride, and keep moving forward.
As long as Estima can develop some solid striking skills, or at least defense, he could find himself in the sport’s highest promotion before too long. The man’s ground game is second to none, and at only 32 years of age, Estima also has a little bit of time on his side to work on his standup and takedowns. Agree or disagree?
It looks like Anthony Johnson has found a promotion willing to overlook his chronic habit of coming in overweight for contracted bouts.
Titan Fighting Championship announced today that it has signed “Rumble” to an unspecified contract and that the 10-4 former UFC welterweight-turned-light heavyweight will be headlining its May 25 card, which will be broadcast live on HDNet. No opponent has been named for AJ, and it has yet to be determined if the former welterweight, who came in 13 pounds over for his middleweight debut at UFC 142 against Vitor Belfort in his last bout, will be fighting at 185 or at a catchweight. One thing’s for certain: his days at 170 are likely behind him.
“I’m back, and I’m fighting May 25 with Titan Fighting Championship, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to headline this event for all the fans in Kansas City and watching that night live on HDNet,” Johnson confirmed with Ariel Helwani on Monday’s MMA Hour. “I am so pumped to be fighting again, and I’m ready to take on whatever 185-pounder they put in front of me. I received offers from all over the world, and after a lot of consideration, my manager Glenn Robinson and I settled on Titan because it’s a good promotion, but more importantly it’s run by really good people.”
(“Higher or lower than 200? Higher?”)
It looks like Anthony Johnson has found a promotion willing to overlook his chronic habit of coming in overweight for contracted bouts.
Titan Fighting Championship announced today that it has signed “Rumble” to an unspecified contract and that the 10-4 former UFC welterweight-turned-light heavyweight will be headlining its May 25 card, which will be broadcast live on HDNet. No opponent has been named for AJ, and it has yet to be determined if the former welterweight, who came in 13 pounds over for his middleweight debut at UFC 142 against Vitor Belfort in his last bout, will be fighting at 185 or at a catchweight. One thing’s for certain: his days at 170 are likely behind him.
“I’m back, and I’m fighting May 25 with Titan Fighting Championship, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to headline this event for all the fans in Kansas City and watching that night live on HDNet,” Johnson confirmed with Ariel Helwani on Monday’s MMA Hour. “I am so pumped to be fighting again, and I’m ready to take on whatever 185-pounder they put in front of me. I received offers from all over the world, and after a lot of consideration, my manager Glenn Robinson and I settled on Titan because it’s a good promotion, but more importantly it’s run by really good people.”
“It’s incredible to have Rumble Johnson headlining Titan Fighting 22, and in typical Titan style, the entire card will be filled with exciting matches featuring the best up and coming fighters in the world,” said Joe Kelly, President, Titan Fighting Championship.
Titan FC alumni include Brett Rogers, Sara McMann, James Krause, Bobby Lashley, Jamie Varner, Dakota Cochrane and Tim Sylvia. The promotion, whose first show of 2012 last weekend featured a main event between Jorge Santiago and Leonardo Pecanha, held three events last year.
Excellent fights in Titan tonight. Varner lost in the main event to newcomer Dakota Cochrane. This guy is someone to watch. His skills are rusty, but he has good wrestling and excellent escapes. Couple all that with some decent power. Keep an eye on him. Brett Rogers lost to Eddie Sanchez. I figured if Sanchez
Excellent fights in Titan tonight. Varner lost in the main event to newcomer Dakota Cochrane. This guy is someone to watch. His skills are rusty, but he has good wrestling and excellent escapes. Couple all that with some decent power. Keep an eye on him.
Brett Rogers lost to Eddie Sanchez. I figured if Sanchez can avoid those first few attacks Rogers brings on opponents the more technical Sanchez can win.
Strikeforce is also put on a decent show here. Both Couture and Shawn Jordan were impressive. Brian Melancon is one to watch though at 170. All around good and had a tough opponent, but won relatively easily.
Lorenz Larkin is an interesting fighter doing weird stuff like heel kicks to the calf while up against the cage. He came out with a jumping round house to kick things off as well. Larkin’s movement is a problem for anyone he is going to face. That is probably more important skillset than his dynamic striking.
It was back and forth through the first 2 rounds, but in the third, Nick Rossborough comes out with a fury backing Larkin in to the cage and starts unloading on him.
Out of nowhere, Larkin lands a hard knee to Rossborough’s body that makes him fall back in slow motion and on to the ground – unreal. Larkin jumps on top and tries to pound. Rossborough survives and Larkin lets him up. Now up against the cage Larkin takes Rossborough down and ends up on top. Larkin dropping elbows to the body while in the guard, but Rossborough has him tied up now pretty good.
Now Larkin slashing some Florian like elbows. Really good short elbows and Rossborough is now bleeding badly. Larkin remains on top until the bell.
