Former Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate may have an ace in the hole during the home stretch leading up to her rematch with UFC women’s champ Ronda Rousey at UFC 168 later this month.
Another ex-Strikeforce titleholder, curren…
Former Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate may have an ace in the hole during the home stretch leading up to her rematch with UFC women’s champ Ronda Rousey at UFC 168 later this month.
Another ex-Strikeforce titleholder, current Invicta FC women’s featherweight top dog Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino reached out to Tate via Twitter to offer her services as a training partner before the Dec. 28 title bout.
Despite a failed drug test controversy swirling around her last fight with Strikeforce, she remained under contract with ZuffaLLC, the UFC’s parent company, and it didn’t take long for negotiations for a Rousey vs. Cyborg superfight to get underway.
However, after months of Rousey and Justino being unable to find a middle ground, Cyborg requested and was granted a release from her contract in February 2013.
Since then, the 28-year-old has scored back-to-back TKO’s under the Invicta banner, winning the 145-pound title with her stoppage over MarloesCoenen in July.
Meanwhile, Rousey and Tate’s rivalry has been going strong since early 2012, with Rousey‘s gruesome armbar finish over Tate in March of that year only intensifying the hatred.
Rousey is currently 7-0 as a professional mixed martial artist, finishing all of her fights with a first-round armbar.
On the other hand, Tate is 13-4 overall in her career, though she is just 1-2 in her past three matchups inside the cage.
Their bitter feud was recently exacerbated as they coached opposite one another on season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter, with many pundits believing the reality series tarnished Rousey‘s reputation, casting Tate in a more favorable light at the same time.
Would “Cupcake” be wise in accepting Cyborg’s offer quickly ahead of her pivotal title rematch with Rousey later this month?
John Heinis is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA Editor for eDraft.com.
During a time when closely knit split decisions and highly contested point systems rule the world of mixed martial arts, the sight of a trustworthy referee often expels exuberance.
For fans who have been watching the UFC since its rebirth, they know ex…
During a time when closely knit split decisions and highly contested point systems rule the world of mixed martial arts, the sight of a trustworthy referee often expels exuberance.
For fans who have been watching the UFC since its rebirth, they know exactly how hard it is to find that one special ref.
For new fans, many of whom don’t know that the UFC has nothing to do with the selection of Octagon officials, spotting a good ref may be harder than ever.
But through all of the recent bad stoppages and miscalculations inside the cage, Herb Dean is one of the only referees left who still commands optimal respect and professional gratitude.
That’s why Dana White and Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer push for Dean to call some of the biggest fights of the year.
Luckily for them, the commission has approved Kizer’s recommendation for Dean to officiate an upcoming rematch between UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman and pound-for-pound legend Anderson Silva later this month at UFC 168, which may be the greatest grudge match of all time.
“The first fight was quite strange, and I normally don’t recommend the same ref for the rematch, but here, I think it would actually be very appropriate,” Kizer said on Monday, originally reported by MMA Junkie.
Dean’s stoppage early into the second round of Weidman and Silva’s first championship showdown this past July was mere perfection. He did what he was trained to do and allowed the challenger to decisively defeat the champ.
This is a good sign to see considering how many times NSAC-appointed referees stumble when the spotlight is brightest. Dean is one of the best around and should officiate one hell of a rematch.
In case you don’t remember Del Rosario, he made his name in Strikeforce with a submission win over Lavar Johnson. He came up short against Stipe Miocic in his first UFC fight. He last appeared in the Octagon back in December 2012 in a losing effort against Pat Barry. He was expected to fight at UFC 168 but had to withdraw due to injury (a rib injury seemingly unrelated to his current predicament).
It’s tragic and highly atypical for such a young, athletic individual to suffer a heart attack. Del Rosario’s manager stated that the fighter’s doctors believed it was called by a condition called Long QT Syndrome—an exceedingly rare heart condition that can lead to death-inducing arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat).
Unfortunately, it’s highly probable that Del Rosario will be taken off life support soon. At the time of writing, there have been no updates on this front. We will provide any news as it becomes available. The CagePotato staff is hopeful that it will be the good kind of news.
In case you don’t remember Del Rosario, he made his name in Strikeforce with a submission win over Lavar Johnson. He came up short against Stipe Miocic in his first UFC fight. He last appeared in the Octagon back in December 2012 in a losing effort against Pat Barry. He was expected to fight at UFC 168 but had to withdraw due to injury (a rib injury seemingly unrelated to his current predicament).
It’s tragic and highly atypical for such a young, athletic individual to suffer a heart attack. Del Rosario’s manager stated that the fighter’s doctors believed it was called by a condition called Long QT Syndrome—an exceedingly rare heart condition that can lead to death-inducing arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat).
Unfortunately, it’s highly probable that Del Rosario will be taken off life support soon. At the time of writing, there have been no updates on this front. We will provide any news as it becomes available. The CagePotato staff is hopeful that it will be the good kind of news.
It’s often said the journey far outweighs the destination.
The saying is meant to shed light on how the path navigated is supposed to provide more meaning when the person gets to where he or she is going—how the miles that roll beneath one’s feet…
It’s often said the journey far outweighs the destination.
The saying is meant to shed light on how the path navigated is supposed to provide more meaning when the person gets to where he or she is going—how the miles that roll beneath one’s feet hold a greater importance than the place one eventually ends up.
Chris Leben‘s path through life has come with its fair share of peaks and valleys, but the 33-year-old is still standing tall. Storms of both the personal and professional varieties have been weathered and “The Crippler” is looking forward to completing his mission of getting everything back on track.
The TUF 1 alum’s public battle with opiate addiction has played out in plain sight, and after two years of ongoing recovery, he’s winning the battle of sobriety. That said, with his past three showings inside the Octagon ending in defeat, there is an urgency surrounding his ability to get back into the win column.
This is a pressure that isn’t lost on Leben, but as a man who understands how to traverse the difficult terrains of life, it’s something he’s come to handle in his own way. Leben understands how important his fight against Uriah Hall will be at UFC 168 on Dec. 28, but there is only so much of the process he can control. And it’s these parts he’s going all in on.
“I really feel like I have something to prove right now,” Leben told Bleacher Report. “My last fight was a bummer. I fought Andrew Craig and he fought tough. He fought great and got two judges where I got one. That sucks.
“With everything that has happened and having that be my last fight, I kind of feel I really have something to prove coming into this fight. But what can I do about it? The only thing I can do about it is train my ass off, toe the line, stay straight and sober and work as hard as I can. I have to brush off the haters and the cobwebs and just keep moving forward. That is what I’m focused on doing.
“My mindset right now is obviously that this fight is super important. I want to win more than anything; so how do I do that? How do I do that without over-stressing myself? I can’t worry myself to a victory, and that is something I’ve learned over the years.
“The only things worth worrying about are those things I can affect. Right now, the way I can affect what is going to happen on Saturday night, Dec. 28, is to stay focused when I’m in the gym training and on my diet outside of the gym.
“Those things right there are what I’m focusing on,” Leben added. “It’s a stressful, scary spot to be in right now, and the one thing I’ve done before is gotten myself in trouble because I’ve stressed out about things and handled them the wrong way. I’ve had to learn how to deal with it. The way I’ve learned to handle it is to focus on what I can affect right now.”
Coming into the bout, both fighters are in similar positions. Both have struggled to find victory in recent outings and—because of that—are faced with the reality of losing their places in the UFC. Where Leben has been a staple with the organization for the better part of the past decade, his battles outside of the cage and stumbles inside have brought him to a place where he’s walking a thin line with the organization.
The same rings true for Hall. After being heralded and praised for his performance on the 17th installment of The Ultimate Fighter, the California transplant has failed to produce under the bright lights of the Octagon. His inability to claim victory has lead to UFC President Dana White questioning his heart, and he is undoubtedly in a make or break situation with the promotion.
“After what Dana said about his last fight, Hall is definitely in a must-win situation,” Leben said. “We both kind of are, and that’s what makes this fight exciting. It seems like this is one of those fights where the winner stays, and the loser walks. It feels like that kind of a deal.
“This is definitely a matchup for the fans. We are polar opposites, Uriah Hall and I. He’s athletic. He’s fancy, but when the going gets tough, sometimes Hall gets going.
“I’m the dead opposite. There isn’t anything fancy about my game. I’m not the most athletic fighter in the world. I’ve won so many fights I should have lost on sheer grit alone. And I know that. I know that coming into this fight it is going to be straight punches and basics that win this fight for me.
“It’s going to be moving forward and forcing this guy to continue to fight and hopefully somewhere along the line we are going to break him. We are going to get him out in that deep water, and he’s going to fail to keep his head above.”
As Leben prepares to face Hall at UFC 168 in Las Vegas, he will continue to make the adjustments he’s been in the process of making for the past two years. While he fights a daily mental battle against inner impulse, he also has to tweak the way he treats his body as well.
After 11 years of competition and 32 fights—21 of which that have come under the UFC banner—the Team Alliance fighter has been forced to alter the way he approaches his craft. For Leben, those alterations have made all the difference and are allowing him to feel more productive than ever before.
“I absolutely have had to make adjustments,” Leben said. “I think I’m training harder at 33 than I ever did at 23. That alone is a huge difference. Nowadays, when it comes time for team practice, I’m the first guy in the gym. I’m in there 45 minutes to an hour early because I need to stretch. That is something I didn’t do at all before.
“I used to roll out of bed, throw my shorts on, race to practice, jump on the mat and start swinging. Now, it’s not like that. I have to get up a little earlier. I have to go through a process before I leave the house, then go to the gym to do my stretching and warming up.
“After that, I’m ready to work out with everybody. I do things that way so I don’t get hurt and to make sure I’m not so sore afterwards that I feel terrible. Ultimately it does pay off.
“You learn that the hard way really isn’t the hard way and the easy way really is the hard way,” he added. “It’s about priorities. I have to prioritize and over the last two years I’ve gotten a lot better at that. Where I’m going and who I’m hanging out with have been big changes for me.
“There is also the realization that this fight isn’t as important as my life or as my sobriety. Those are on different levels, but the thing I’ve really learned to do is prioritize. That’s what I was missing before.”
Regardless of how his record has shaped up where wins and losses are concerned, Leben‘s fighting spirit has endeared him to a passionate fanbase. The Oregon native’s ability to press forward through the fire and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat have made him one of those fighters fans mark the calendar to see compete.
Where his skill set has surely grown over his career as a mixed martial artist, the way Leben is wired makes him dangerous at every point of the fight. He knows he’s not the most technical or athletic, but in his mind, you are going to have to dig deep to defeat him.
“After so long you just realize what you are going to do,” Leben said. “I know that if I get hit or get rocked, my instinct is not to back up and cover. Any sane person, that’s probably what their instinct would be. ‘Oh sh** I’m rocked, let me cover and regain my composure.’
“But that’s not how I’m wired. My instinct is to go forward, and over all these years of fighting that has never changed. I don’t see it changing anytime soon.
“I think it’s just something you are born with, and you have to recognize that. Your coaches have to as well. Coaches have to recognize the type of fighter they are coaching. My coaches understand how I am and the kind of fighter I am.
“They approach the game plan and how to make things work the best they can for the fighter I am. You’re going to have your guys that fight safe, and you’re going to have your guys who go out there and lay it on the line. The best thing you can do is tailor their games to that because it will never change.”
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
Fights are typically scratched or altered when a single fighter is injured; it’s a rare situation when two fighters scheduled to face each other suffer injuries at the same time.
But that’s exactly what happened with UFC 168 opponents Shane Del Rosario…
Fights are typically scratched or altered when a single fighter is injured; it’s a rare situation when two fighters scheduled to face each other suffer injuries at the same time.
But that’s exactly what happened with UFC 168 opponents Shane Del Rosario and GutoInocente. Both fighters were injured and have been removed from the event.
The UFC announced the news via its official @UFCNews Twitter account. It’s unlikely that a replacement fight will be named.
UFC 168 takes place on Dec. 28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. It is headlined by a pair of title-fight rematches: Middleweight champion Chris Weidman takes on former champ Anderson Silva, while women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey takes on fellow The Ultimate Fighter coach Miesha Tate.
Other featured bouts include former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett taking on Travis Browne, the hottest prospect in the heavyweight division. Jim Miller also faces Fabricio Camoes.
Del Rosario (8-2, 0-2 UFC) has suffered two consecutive losses to StipeMiocic and Pat Barry since making his promotional debut at UFC 146 in 2012. Prior to the two losses, he had rung up an undefeated record since his MMA debut in 2006, mostly under the Strikeforce banner.
Inocente (6-2, 0-0 UFC) has yet to make his UFC debut after signing with the promotion when Strikeforce closed its doors. He fought one time in Strikeforce, winning a unanimous decision over Virgil Zwicker at Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Cormier in 2012.
Del Rosario trains with Team Oyama alongside flyweight Ian McCall, while Inocente is a member of the famed Blackzilians team in Florida.
We all love a good rivalry.
It’s nice to see two dudes who respect each other enter the cage to see who’s better, but when they talk trash for a month and shove each other at the weigh-in, it always adds a little something extra.
Look at Ronda Rousey a…
We all love a good rivalry.
It’s nice to see two dudes who respect each other enter the cage to see who’s better, but when they talk trash for a month and shove each other at the weigh-in, it always adds a little something extra.
Look at Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate. The two were set to square off in Strikeforce early in 2012 and were absolutely seething at one another by the time they did. Rousey thought Tate was an easy target, Tate thought Rousey was a disrespectful nobody.
Since then, Tate’s arm ended up bending the wrong way at the elbow, women ended up in the UFC, the two were rival coaches on TUF, and they both stand to get very, very rich together at next month’s UFC 168.
Let’s take a look at some other rivalries presently going on in the UFC.
During a time when closely knit split decisions and highly contested point systems rule the world of mixed martial arts, the sight of a trustworthy referee often expels exuberance.