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Dan Hardy: Anthony Johnson Can Come in at Whatever Weight He Wants

Fans who look forward to Dan Hardy’s pre-fight trash talk will have to get used to disappointment as he prepares to face Anthony Johnson at UFC Fight Night 24 in Seattle this Saturday night.

As Hardy told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA …

Fans who look forward to Dan Hardy‘s pre-fight trash talk will have to get used to disappointment as he prepares to face Anthony Johnson at UFC Fight Night 24 in Seattle this Saturday night.

As Hardy told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, not only does he like “Rumble” too much to come up with anything bad to say about him, he also doesn’t think it would do any good.

The Best in 2010 Interviews

Filed under: MMA Videos, UFC, Strikeforce, FanHouse Exclusive, Videos

Over the past year, MMA Fighting’s E. Casey Leydon and I have traveled around the world to cover this great sport. From UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi to UFC 120 in London, England, to everywhere in between, if there was a major MMA event happening, we were more often than not there. In total, we covered 24 MMA events together this year (not including one Winter Olympic Games).

So we thought it would be fun to look back at the moments and people we encountered along the way. Enjoy parts 1 and 2 of our best interviews from the past year below.

Filed under: MMA Videos, UFC, Strikeforce, FanHouse Exclusive, Videos

So we thought it would be fun to look back at the moments and people we encountered along the way. Enjoy parts 1 and 2 of our best interviews from the past year below.

Greg Jackson too Safe? Well, He Does Wear Rubber Gloves…

Dana White recently targeted beloved coach, Greg Jackson of Jackson’s MMA as a contributor to boring fights in the UFC. Though Jackson holds prestige as the trainer to names like Georges St. Pierre, Jon “Bones” Jones, Rashad Evans, Clay Guida and Carlos Condit to name a few, White believes that Jackson’s lead-with-caution approach is […]

Dana White recently targeted beloved coach, Greg Jackson of Jackson’s MMA as a contributor to boring fights in the UFC. Though Jackson holds prestige as the trainer to names like Georges St. Pierre, Jon “Bones” Jones, Rashad Evans, Clay Guida and Carlos Condit to name a few, White believes that Jackson’s lead-with-caution approach is hindering the excitement that the fighters should be bringing into the octagon that helps the viewers feel their $49.95 pay-per-view was money well spent. White had a mouthful to say in regard to Greg Jackson’s training methods including that he has respect for Jackson yet his game plans and corner work are “weird”. White summed up his thoughts by saying:

You’ll see guys who are traditionally exciting fighters, but when they go to the Greg Jackson camp they become safety first fighters. Why wouldn’t you tell him ‘go for broke in this third round? This is a close fight.

Greg Jackson had an opportunity to fire back to White’s criticisms earlier today via a phone interview with MMAFighting’s Ben Fowlkes:

Here’s a quick stat for you. So there’s been 22 [UFC events] this year? We had 12 bonuses so far this year, so one out of every two, one of my fighters got Submission of the Night, Knockout of the Night, or Fight of the Night.

Jackson went on to list that Jon Jones had finished every single fight under the Jackson training camp save for a Disqualification against Matt Hamill for an illegal elbow. He also mention’s Carlos Condit’s recent Knockout of the Night and Fight of the Night honors with his victory over Dan Hardy at UFC 120.

The comments made by White were after a disappointing performance by Nate Marquardt who lost via Unanimous Decision to Yushin Okami earlier this month at UFC 122. White felt Marquardt had ample opportunity to try and finish Okami in the 3rd round but didn’t feel his corner was urging Marquardt to go for it.

Despite criticism, Greg Jackson remains a favorite MMA coach and is up for Coach of the Year at the 2010 World MMA Awards this Wednesday night. Jackson took top honors last year, so it doesn’t look like you, the fans would have agreed with White in 2009. We’ll see if you’ve had a change of heart this year.

Release of Quieroz Highlights UFC’s Need for Consistent Drug Policy

Chances are most MMA fans hadn’t heard much about Vinicius Quieroz (5-2) before this week. The Brazilian Chute Boxe product made his Octagon debut at UFC 120 in London, losing via third-round submission to Rob Broughton on the unaired preliminaries. …

It wasn’t the greatest start to a stint in the UFC, but it wasn’t deemed an offense worthy of dismissal. Not until the UFC’s independent drug testing nabbed him for using the steroid Stanozolol, that is.

Then he was not only fired from the organization but also forced to forfeit “an undisclosed discretionary bonus.”

The fact that he was given a bonus in the first place tells you the UFC wasn’t wholly unhappy with his performance in the cage. The fact that he was fired after the positive test result tells you that the UFC really is serious about cracking down on steroid users, just as long as those users are the kind of guys it can jettison without hurting the bottom line.

Vinicius Quieroz Fired by the UFC After Testing Positive for Steroids

Just a month and a half after Chael Sonnen tested positive for performance enhancing drugs following his middleweight title fight against Anderson Silva, the UFC has more dirty urine on its hands. MMA Junkie broke the news yesterday that Octagon first-timer Vinicius Quieroz — who was submitted by Rob Broughton in his debut at UFC 120 in London — tested positive for the anabolic steroid Stanozolol after the match and has been fired by the UFC.

As they usually do for overseas events, the UFC conducted its own drug screening at #120, testing main event fighters Michael Bisping and Yoshihiro Akiyama, as well as six other fighters selected at random. Quieroz was the only fighter who tested positive. In addition to his release from the promotion, the 5-2 Chute Boxe product will forfeit an undisclosed discretionary bonus from the UFC; his test results will also be given to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which could affect Quieroz’s ability to get licensed to fight in the U.S.

Ah, Sweet Irony: Akiyama Implies Bisping May Have Been Greased Up

(Akiyama vs. Sakuraba is a cautionary example of why it’s best to wait until *after* the fight to make an impassioned plea to the referee. If only Palhares had seen this. VidProps: YouTube/AkiyamaYoshihiro2)
Well, this is a switch: Not only is …

Well, this is a switch: Not only is a Greg Jackson-trained fighter accusing someone else of potentially greasing his body during a fight but it’s none other than Yoshihiro Akiyama, who you may remember was himself outed as one of the greasiest MFers in the game following a 2006 fight against Kazushi Sakuraba at K-1 Dynamite!! The video of that fiasco can be seen at top. Nevertheless, Akiyama told MMAFighting.com foreign correspondent Daniel Herbertson upon returning home this week that the reason he didn’t try harder to take Michael Bisping down at UFC 120 was that the Brit felt suspiciously slimy to the touch.

"I only went for one takedown but Bisping’s body was really slippery,” Akiyama said. Then, apparently even setting off the alarms on his own irony indicator, quipped: “Even if I do say so myself … "

Look, nobody wants to get into another GreaseGate debacle here, so unless Akiyama wants to pursue this further we’re willing to chalk it up as a harmless pot-calling-the-kettle-black-type situation and move on with our lives. Also, not that we think Bisping would necessarily be above bending the rules (See: Him possibly purposely injuring Matt Hamill during “TUF 3”), we’re kind of wary of accusing another Wolfslair fighter of cheating, lest he threaten our testiculars via angry Facebook post.

Gotta say though, if anybody knows what a greased-up fighter feels like, it’d be Akiyama.