Tag: UFC 166

UFC 166: Adlan Amagov ‘Is Going to Be a Future UFC Champion,’ Manager Says

Heavy-handed welterweight Adlan Amagov is gearing up for a welterweight scrap with talented jiu-jitsu ace TJ Waldburger at UFC 166, but if his team is worried about the matchup, they certainly aren’t saying so. 
“TJ is a great fighter, a well-acco…

Heavy-handed welterweight Adlan Amagov is gearing up for a welterweight scrap with talented jiu-jitsu ace TJ Waldburger at UFC 166, but if his team is worried about the matchup, they certainly aren’t saying so. 

“TJ is a great fighter, a well-accomplished BJJ practitioner who will surely want to take it to the ground,” Sam Kardan, the manager of the Russian-based Red Fury Fight Team, told Bleacher Report. 

“Adlan is a pretty good grappler too though, [he has] good freestyle wrestling and comes from an extensive Sambo background … “This fight is a chance for Adlan to show himself on the ground, but I think his striking is well above [what TJ has to offer].”

For the sake of comparison, Waldburger enters the October 19 showdown with a 16-7 overall record, with the BJJ brown belt notching 13 of those wins via submission—showcasing a crafty guard in most of his fights. 

On the other hand, Amagov boasts a 12-2-1 mark through 15 professional fights, with seven of those wins coming by way of knockout. 

The 27-year-old striker made his Octagon, as well as his welterweight, debut at UFC on FUEL 9 in April, winning a convincing decision over fellow Strikeforce import Chris Spang. 

Worth noting is that Amagov fought the first 10 bouts of his career at light heavyweight, though Kardan explains that statistic is a bit misleading when considering how heavy his client actually is.  

“He did really well at light heavyweight, but Adlan was always underweight. Fighting at 205, he would weigh in [at] maybe 190 [pounds]. He was always much lighter than the light heavyweight limit,” Kardan stated.

When he was signed to Strikeforce in mid-2011, Amagov cut down to middleweight, posting a 3-1 mark at that weight class, with his sole blemish being a TKO to current welterweight contender Robbie Lawler.

“He felt very comfortable at middleweight: quick, powerful. But after hanging out with guys like Chael Sonnen and Anderson Silva that we’ve got to meet and know, Adlan got to see how much bigger those guys are than him. So we decided a drop to welterweight made a lot of sense.”

Kardan believes that one of his team’s highest regarded prospects will live up to his expectations at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, predicting that Amagov will score his second TKO win in his past three fights. 

While the manager admits Amagov could be as far as “three or four wins from making it into the top 10,” he believes a victory over a dangerous opponent like Waldburger “solidifies his position in the UFC.”

Not surprisingly, Kardan believes “The Wolf” will make it to that point and beyond inside the Octagon.  

“I strongly believe he is going to be a UFC champion in whatever weight class he decides to stick with … though I think we’ll probably stay at welterweight,” noting that he expects Amagov to make the welterweight limit with no problem next Saturday.

When asked where Amagov‘s nickname came from, Kardan gave an answer that was both candid and in-depth. 

“We were trying to figure out a nickname when he first got her to the US, [since] all these fighters have weird Russian names that nobody can pronounce,” Kardan recalled. 

“Adlan is a Chechen, so the Chechens, they have the wolf as a sacred animal to them … they have a heritage with the wolf, a very highly regarded connection to the animal. It means a lot to him and all the other Chechens who support him, so it made a lot of sense.”

Don’t be surprised if some fans chant “Borz” during Amagov‘s upcoming bout though, as that means “wolf” in Chechen.

Should Amagov get his hand raised against Waldburger, Amina Isakova, the Vice President of the Red Fury Fight Team, would like to see “one of the faces of our team” fight at the UFC 169 event in Newark, New Jersey, due to the strong ties the Russian community has in northern New Jersey and New York. 

“If we do well [in the Waldburger fight], we’d like to fight in Newark. The reason why we want our guys competing in Newark is there is a large Russian community in northern New Jersey and Brooklyn, there is a large following a lot of people don’t know about,” she told Bleacher Report over the phone.

“Our fans want to come watch these guys locally and I think it would bring a lot more attention to the UFC in Jersey.”

Fellow Red Fury Fight Team member Khabib Nurmagomedov, who rolled through lightweight veteran Pat Healy at UFC 165 last month, has already asked the UFC to book him against TJ Grant on the February 1 pay-per-view. 

Whether or not the company grants his request remains to be seen. 

Amagov vs. Waldburger is a part of the four UFC 166 preliminary bouts scheduled to be streamed online, which are set to begin at 6:15 p.m. Eastern Time. 

 

John Heinis is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA Editor for eDraft.com.

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Andre Fili in for Injured Charles Oliveira vs. Jeremy Larsen at UFC 166

UFC 166 is back to 13 fights on the card not long after it appeared that a bout between Charles Oliveira and Jeremy Larsen would be scrapped. Oliveira suffered an injury and was pulled from the card, but a member of Team Alpha Male has stepped up on sh…

UFC 166 is back to 13 fights on the card not long after it appeared that a bout between Charles Oliveira and Jeremy Larsen would be scrapped. Oliveira suffered an injury and was pulled from the card, but a member of Team Alpha Male has stepped up on short notice to meet Larsen.

Andre Fili, who appeared on B/R’s top 10 featherweights outside the UFC, will step up to fight Larsen in the featherweight division. Fili, who is just once beaten, will have less than a month to prepare for the UFC and TUF 15 vet.

Fili (12-1) will try to keep Team Alpha Male’s hot streak going. Since the addition of Duane Ludwig as head coach, they have won all but two bouts. The only two losses came outside the UFC, as Justin Buchholz dropped a close decision to Clay Collard and Daniel Romero was tapped out by Caol Uno.

Known affectionately as “Touchy,” Fili has been a staple of the west coast regionals. His lone loss came in the fifth round of a fight due to a leg injury, so he could easily be undefeated.

He is a finisher that has knocked out six opponents and tapped another three. In training with Team Alpha Male, you know that he is going to have some solid wrestling to go along with dangerous striking. Plus, he is long and lanky, so he can bang from a distance.

Possibly the best part about him is that he is extremely comfortable off his back. He has great sweeps and submissions, which makes the fighter on top of him incredibly uncomfortable. If you want proof of that, check out his fight with Enoch Wilson at Tachi Palace Fights 15.

Fili has the chance to be a staple at 145. He is skilled and incredibly charismatic, a trait you see in a lot of the Alpha Male guys like Urijah Faber, Joseph Benavidez and Lance Palmer.

His fight with Larsen will be very interesting. Fili had already been training for a fight later this year at welterweight, two weight classes above his normal division.

Larsen is a former lightweight, but will still likely be at a size disadvantage. He is known to be comfortable on the feet, so Fili‘s best bet may be for him to drag him down and tap him out in a similar game plan to Efrain Escudero.

Either way, this fight is instantaneously in the running for Fight of the Night.

Stay tuned for more news and updates from the UFC.

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Roy Nelson Says He Will Beat Cormier, Possibly Go for Title Shot at 205 Lbs

Back in July, Daniel Cormier discussed how he planned to call for a light heavyweight title fight against Jon Jones after he was done roughing up Roy Nelson at UFC 166. Nelson, though, is looking to steal his thunder in more ways than one.
Speaking wit…

Back in July, Daniel Cormier discussed how he planned to call for a light heavyweight title fight against Jon Jones after he was done roughing up Roy Nelson at UFC 166. Nelson, though, is looking to steal his thunder in more ways than one.

Speaking with Bloody Elbow, Nelson discussed his desire to do the same.

My goal is just to beat Daniel. My goal is to fight the champ. Right now, Daniel is in front of me, so I’m trying to beat him…in everything he does. I’m hearing that if he beats me, he’s supposed to get a title shot at 205; he gets to jump to the front of the line. I’m all about jumping to the front of the line. My mode of thinking is that he’s number 2, and if I beat him, my next step after that would be to fight for the belt, in either division.

Nelson, twice now, has gotten very close to title contention in the heavyweight division. He dropped a top contender bout to eventual champion Junior dos Santos at UFC 117, and most recently, he had an impressive three-fight streak of knockouts ended by an ugly decision loss to Stipe Miocic. Nelson, though, hasn’t taken his eye off the prize.

“Big Country” recently posted a photo of himself looking shockingly lean and in-shape. He has long been chastised by UFC president Dana White for his weight and disheveled appearance.

Commentator Joe Rogan has long rambled that Nelson would be best served by fighting at light heavyweight. However, that has seemed to be a pipe dream, given Nelson’s age (he is currently 37 and didn’t join the UFC until he was 33 years old) and the fact that he has spent his entire MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu career at heavyweight.

That said, Nelson’s recent weight loss, depending on the actual number on the scale at the weigh-in, makes that seem like a legitimate possibility.

Even with the weight loss, Nelson is a big underdog against Daniel Cormier. Cormier has had remarkable success against some serious UFC competition and has beaten three top-10 heavyweights in his 12-fight career. He is a world-class wrestler who, on paper, seems more than capable of outclinching and outgrappling Nelson without difficulty.

Still, Nelson has shown himself to be capable of knocking out anybody in the business. 

They will meet at UFC 166 on October 19. Make sure to keep an eye out for more updates about the fight card as they become available.

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[VIDEO] 5 Things We Learned From ‘UFC Primetime: Velasquez vs. Dos Santos III’ Episode 1

(Video via the UFC’s Youtube page)

In advance of their UFC 166 world heavyweight title main event on October 19th, champion Cain Velasquez and challenger Junior Dos Santos are being featured in another UFC Primetime documentary series. Episode 1 premiered Wednesday night and already began to reveal a number of interesting tidbits about the fighters and their training camps heading into the rubber match of their trilogy.

1. Junior Dos Santos may be challenging Georges St. Pierre for having the most scientific training camp in the world.

Dos Santos demonstrated incredible will and conditioning throughout the five-round beating he took from Velasquez in their second fight so it was amazing to hear that he wasn’t at his best for the fight, physically. In fact, the then-champion had over-trained for the fight, resulting in a nasty condition called rhabdomyolysis, where muscle fibers were breaking off and let loose into his blood stream.

To make sure that doesn’t happen again to him this training camp, we learned in last night’s episode that Dos Santos has employed a group of scientists who constantly test his blood. He gets his blood drawn at home, he gets it drawn at the gym right before sparring and the white coats spend the rest of the day testing and analyzing his samples and preparing reports for Junior and his team. Dos Santos’ sophisticated strength and conditioning program is informed by that blood work.

By the looks of it, this is some of the most scientific preparation we’ve seen outside of Georges St. Pierre doing gymnastics and benefiting from the French-Canadian supplement-wrestling complex.

2. Daniel Cormier doesn’t plan on showering after he fights Roy Nelson.


(Video via the UFC’s Youtube page)

In advance of their UFC 166 world heavyweight title main event on October 19th, champion Cain Velasquez and challenger Junior Dos Santos are being featured in another UFC Primetime documentary series. Episode 1 premiered Wednesday night and already began to reveal a number of interesting tidbits about the fighters and their training camps heading into the rubber match of their trilogy.

1. Junior Dos Santos may be challenging Georges St. Pierre for having the most scientific training camp in the world.

Dos Santos demonstrated incredible will and conditioning throughout the five-round beating he took from Velasquez in their second fight so it was amazing to hear that he wasn’t at his best for the fight, physically. In fact, the then-champion had over-trained for the fight, resulting in a nasty condition called rhabdomyolysis, where muscle fibers were breaking off and let loose into his blood stream.

To make sure that doesn’t happen again to him this training camp, we learned in last night’s episode that Dos Santos has employed a group of scientists who constantly test his blood. He gets his blood drawn at home, he gets it drawn at the gym right before sparring and the white coats spend the rest of the day testing and analyzing his samples and preparing reports for Junior and his team. Dos Santos’ sophisticated strength and conditioning program is informed by that blood work.

By the looks of it, this is some of the most scientific preparation we’ve seen outside of Georges St. Pierre doing gymnastics and benefiting from the French-Canadian supplement-wrestling complex.

2. Daniel Cormier doesn’t plan on showering after he fights Roy Nelson.

It would seem that showering after rolling around with an unkempt guy like “Big Country” would be a good idea — you know, to get the hair balls out and to ward off tetanus — but Velasquez’s coach/teammate Daniel Cormier says he won’t have time to shower after facing Nelson in their UFC 166 co-main event. In addition to being a sparring partner of Cain’s at American Kickboxing Academy (more on that below) and being the #3 UFC-ranked heavyweight in the world, Cormier is the champ’s wrestling coach and Velasquez does not feel comfortable fighting without the Olympian in his corner.

Because of this, Cormier will have to rush from the Octagon after fighting Nelson and get right to Cain’s corner. No time for showering, you see.

3. Daniel Cormier and Cain Velasquez beat the crap out of one another three times a week.

Cormier and Velasquez are teammates in the same weight division (for now) so, of course, they are sparring partners. In episode 1 of UFC Primetime: Velasquez vs. Dos Santos, however, we get to watch one of their thrice-weekly sparring sessions and they go pretty darn hard. This ain’t no timing sparring going on here, these two get after it. No wonder they each have confidence heading into their fights.

4. Junior Dos Santos may be the most bitter, happy guy in the world.

We all know Junior as a smiling, KO machine with nary a bad word to say about anyone not named Alistair Overeem, but his last loss to Velasquez and the commentary during and after it have clearly rubbed the #1 contender the wrong way. Primetime takes us into the home of Dos Santos as he watches tape of his loss to Cain and listens to the television commentators marvel at Velasquez’s whooping of him and say that “this is the real Cain Velasquez.” You know, as opposed to the impostor that Junior beat with ease when he himself had a torn meniscus in 2011.

His anger at the way his fight was called bubbles up throughout the episode for Dos Santos. There’s also lots of footage of him fighting and playing around with friends, but make no mistake — the ex-champ is going into this rubber-match with a major chip on his shoulder.

5. JDS has a secret Russian wrestling weapon and his name is Khetag Pliev.

In addition to getting punched and kicked around the Octagon for five rounds by Velasquez, Dos Santos was handily out-wrestled and out-hustled by Cain. To help improve his wrestling, Dos Santos flew in 2012 wrestling Olympian Khetag Pliev. The Russian says that Dos Santos is getting harder to take down for him and in the episode we see Junior using lots of takedowns in his own sparring. Will it make a difference? Shoot us your predictions for Cain vs. JDS III in the comments section…

Roy Nelson Posts Picture of Himself Lean and in Shape

The inflated, potbelly-rubbing Roy Nelson is no more.
“Big Country” recently posted a photo of himself on Facebook preparing for his big fight against Daniel Cormier in the co-main event of UFC 166.
Despite the massive beard still attached …

The inflated, potbelly-rubbing Roy Nelson is no more.

“Big Country” recently posted a photo of himself on Facebook preparing for his big fight against Daniel Cormier in the co-main event of UFC 166.

Despite the massive beard still attached to his chin, Nelson is looking noticeably slimmer in the photo. It appears he is taking dieting and training more seriously this time around, which is something he hasn’t always done in the past.  

A year ago, UFC welterweight Dan Hardy told Fighters Only that he cut ties training with Nelson due to a difference in opinion on training ethics. According to Hardy, he liked to train and Nelson “liked cake.”

UFC President Dana White, in particular, has never been a fan of Nelson’s image. During an appearance on Fox 11 Los Angeles, White called him the “ultimate underachiever:”

I call him the ultimate underachiever. This guy, he’ll come to me and say, “I want more sponsors, I got this, that…” He’s got a mullet down to the middle of his back. …And a huge beard, a beard that almost covers the belly and that’s saying something. I always tell him, “Somebody’s going to want to put their company logo on that?”

…If the guy took his career this serious—[motions for tiny amount]—what will he be able to do? What could he accomplish?

Perhaps Nelson has finally seen the light.

Fans will certainly miss the potbellied humor if things stay on track. For some, Nelson represented the average Joe competing as a professional athlete. He shed the chiseled-out-of-stone, Greek god image of the modern-day heavyweight.

Still, Nelson is now 37 years old, and his window is quickly closing in the sport. It really comes down to how he wants to be remembered when the final curtains close and the swan song has sounded on his career.

Does he want to be remembered as an end-of-the-line, top-10 heavyweight who willfully became the butt of everyone’s joke? Or is he finally ready to shed the jokester image and make one final push to contend for a UFC title?

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Photo of the Day: “Big Country” Nelson Is Now Just “Country” Nelson


(Well, at least they aren’t fist-posing. Photo via Nelson’s Facebook.)

Yep, that’s TUF 10 winner, TUF 16 coach and UFC heavyweight Roy “Big Country” Nelson, looking trimmer than Tom Hanks at the end of Cast Away (which, with the Saddam Hussein circa 2003 beard and all, might be exactly the look he is going for).

Nelson’s weight has been a topic of much discussion over the years — usually in the aftermath of a particularly stinging loss — to the point that he once promised to cut to light heavyweight if enough people “liked” his Facebook page. Although his challenge was unsuccessful, it looks like Nelson is finally starting to take this weight-cutting thing seriously.

And it couldn’t come a day sooner. With Nelson set to face former Olympic wrestler and Strikeforce heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier at UFC 166, he’ll need to be in tip-top shape if he is to avoid dropping his second straight contest for the first time since 2011. It also appears as if Nelson has heeded the requests of Cormier’s camp and undergone a Dumb and Dumber-style makeover in regards to his facial hair. Stipulations of his new contract, maybe?

Previously: Enough Jokes — Roy Nelson Needs to Leave the Heavyweight Division

–J. Jones


(Well, at least they aren’t fist-posing. Photo via Nelson’s Facebook.)

Yep, that’s TUF 10 winner, TUF 16 coach and UFC heavyweight Roy “Big Country” Nelson, looking trimmer than Tom Hanks at the end of Cast Away (which, with the Saddam Hussein circa 2003 beard and all, might be exactly the look he is going for).

Nelson’s weight has been a topic of much discussion over the years — usually in the aftermath of a particularly stinging loss — to the point that he once promised to cut to light heavyweight if enough people “liked” his Facebook page. Although his challenge was unsuccessful, it looks like Nelson is finally starting to take this weight-cutting thing seriously.

And it couldn’t come a day sooner. With Nelson set to face former Olympic wrestler and Strikeforce heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier at UFC 166, he’ll need to be in tip-top shape if he is to avoid dropping his second straight contest for the first time since 2011. It also appears as if Nelson has heeded the requests of Cormier’s camp and undergone a Dumb and Dumber-style makeover in regards to his facial hair. Stipulations of his new contract, maybe?

Previously: Enough Jokes — Roy Nelson Needs to Leave the Heavyweight Division

–J. Jones