Tag: Ufc In The News

Michael DISanto, UFC – Jon Jones will tell you that he has been in this position before, but he hasn’t.
Headlining a UFC event is a big deal. Distractions increase—from additional media interviews to multiple promotional appearances to friends coming out of the woodwork with advice and ticket requests—which means that the pressure to perform also increases.

Elliot Worsell, UFC – If the scent of overwhelming hyperbole forces you to part open your eyelids and request lemon juice be poured into your eyeball, it’s probably best to look away now, while you still have the capacity to see. Similarly, if your name happens to be Jon Jones and you kick butt for a living, steer clear of reading the following, as it will only further inflate your ego, distract from training obligations, paper over bad habits and, perhaps lead you to pose topless before a full-size bedroom mirror and proclaim, “Yes, I most certainly am The Man, aren’t I?”.

Thomas Gerbasi, UFC – One of the UFC’s most talent-rich divisions just got richer Monday with the signing of welterweight star Jake Shields. A veteran of more than a decade in the fight game whose grappling prowess places him among the best in the world, pound-for-pound, Shields becomes an immediate player in a 170-pound division that includes champion Georges St-Pierre and top contenders Josh Koscheck, Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves, and Martin Kampmann.

Frank Curreri, WEC – “Right place, right time” has been a recurring theme in the distinguished career of Leonard Garcia. The 31-year-old Texas native snatched a slice of history a few years ago when he and Roger Huerta graced the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine. Three months ago fate shined upon the giddy brawler yet again: Garcia and South Korea’s Chan Sung Jung kept fans on the edge of their seats by waging a back-and-forth fistic thriller that ringside commentator Joe Rogan instantly hailed as “Fight of the Decade.”

Thomas Gerbasi, UFC – In a war of words, soft-spoken middleweight champion Anderson Silva would likely be on the losing end to his August 7th challenger, the loquacious Chael Sonnen. But fights are won and lost in the Octagon, and not in the press, and that’s where Silva has reigned over the 185-pound division since late-2006.
Despite this, “The Spider” has had plenty to say over the years about his style, his upbringing, and his place in the MMA history books, and here’s a sampling from the pound for pound king.

Elliot Worsell, UFC – Think fighter, think James ‘Lights Out’ Toney. Although the specifics pigeonhole Toney as a professional boxer, Toney’s always been more of a fighter than anything or anyone else. While fighting peers train or learn tough, Toney just is. Some fake it, Toney does it. Fighting comes to Toney as naturally as a shoulder-roll followed by a counter right-cross and nobody, across the entire combat sports spectrum, appears at one with their sport like Toney and boxing. Some men are known as ‘The Natural’, but Toney truly is just that.