Just minutes before Anderson Silva faced Yushin Okami for his 15th consecutive win at UFC 134, he was backstage in his locker room with his Black House teammates watching his BJJ coach, Antonio “Rodrigo” Nogueira.
Just minutes before Anderson Silva faced Yushin Okami for his 15th consecutive win at UFC 134, he was backstage in his locker room with his Black House teammates watching his BJJ coach, Antonio “Rodrigo” Nogueira beat Brendan Schaub with a first round KO. “Big Nog” was the underdog in the eyes of critics and the sportsbooks, but to the surprise of many and to the complete admiration of his entire Team Nogueira, Nog brought home the win. Anderson Silva and his teammates were not short on showing their hometown pride over the impressive victory. Watch the video below:
The old adage when it comes to a traitor among friends is called a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” but given that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson trains out of Wolfslair MMA Academy, it seems there may be.
The old adage when it comes to a traitor among friends is called a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” but given that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson trains out of Wolfslair MMA Academy, it seems there may be a spy disguised as a loyal Wolf teammate. Rampage claimed to Yahoo Sports! that he made up a hand injury that he only spoke of in his gym when four hours later, his manager, Anthony McGann received a phone call concerning the “injury” from Joe Silva . When McGann assured Silva the hand was fine, he asked who had informed him of the injury, to which Silva replied, it was Jon Jones‘ manager, Malki Kawa. Rampage says:
One of my friends was talking to Jon Jones’ manager recently, and Jon Jones’ manager was saying that he knows everything that is going on in our camp. He said he had spies in our camp and he knew everything that was going on. That got me thinking. How did he know about my hand injury that fast? It wasn’t on the Internet, and yet he knew about my hand injury right away. The UFC people were in Brazil, which is why it probably took them four hours to call me.
That shows me two things: They have spies in my camp, one, and two, they’re dumb as hell, because they didn’t know how to use the information correctly and to wait. He called right away, running to Joe Silva. Joe Silva called my manager right away.”
Rampage made up the hand injury story after receiving a message from someone via Twitter that Jones had a spy in Rampage’s camp. Coincidentally enough, Jones’ manager, Kawa disputes he has any spies and that he only learned of a hand injury via Twitter. Kawa claims:
“I promise to God, I have no spy in that camp,” Kawa said. “It’s completely and totally untrue. There is nothing to it at all. It’s funny he said that, though, because we’ve heard he has had old training partners of Jon coming in to work with him. We don’t care and it’s kind of hilarious he’s doing this. But I can guarantee you there is nothing at all that is true about this other than that I called Joe Silva after someone put out a thing on Twitter that Rampage was injured and pulling out. I wanted to know what was up, but it was no more than that. That is it.”
Rampage, who feels betrayed and thinks he knows who the spy is, doesn’t want to call out the person, but he does want this story out for the fans to respond via Twitter. Rampage said : “Of course they’re going to say they aren’t doing it, but we’ll put the story out there to the fans and let them decide.” He says he wants fans to send him messages via Twitter on whether or not they believe Jones has a spy.
Sounds like a Twitter bonus could be in Rampage’s future and an army of Rampage Twitter fans may help get into Jones’ head. Ah… the many useful wonders of social media.
Forrest Griffin spoke to MMA Junkie about his rematch against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua this Saturday at UFC 134 in Rio and holy sh*t it was depressing! It sounds like Forrest was reluctantly forced into this.
Forrest Griffin spoke to MMA Junkie about his rematch against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua this Saturday at UFC 134 in Rio and holy sh*t it was depressing! It sounds like Forrest was reluctantly forced into this match. Griffin says:
“Acceptance, just like the stages of grief… You can only stay in denial for so long… When I got off the plane, I accepted that I was in Brazil,”
Geez, you’d think he was taking his death march to the guillotine… No not the choke, I mean an actual guillotine. Griffin was a tad more enthused just about 4 years ago when he had actually asked to fight Shogun. I remember! I interviewed him here:
And no, obviously I couldn’t pronounce “Rua” correctly at the time, but forget that! Listen to how pumped Forrest was. He asked for that match when Joe Silva called him to suggest a match up with Lyoto Machida. Griffin response was:
“I said, well who’s fighting Shogun? [Joe Silva] said we’re looking for someone to fight Shogun. I said, ‘shit man, you found somebody!’ I’ve been wanting to fight that dude since forever…”
Well, gee… I guess once was enough. But boy, back then… It was a hell of fight, wasn’t it? Now, for Forrest, it sounds like it’s really just about getting the bills paid and taking care of family:
“My parents gotta retire,” he said. “My wife’s parents gotta retire. My little brother wants to go to college. I’ve got a daughter coming; she’s probably going to want to go to college, and she’s probably not going to be a genius, either. So, gotta make some money. A win. Winning pays a lot more than losing.”
So… at least, he still plans on winning and there’s a motivation there… Let’s just hope it’s motivation enough to bring out that same Forrest Griffin in the cage we saw back at UFC 76. F*cking bring it!
As UFC and FOX announce their new multi-year partnership, details have confirmed that a revamped The Ultimate Fighter series will begin airing on FX Network this spring. A UFC press release stated: In spring 2012,.
As UFC and FOX announce their new multi-year partnership, details have confirmed that a revamped The Ultimate Fighter series will begin airing on FX Network this spring. A UFC press release stated:
In spring 2012, THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER, UFC’s signature weekly reality show moves to FX, FOX’s general entertainment cable network now in more than 99 million homes. With the move to FX, the show will feature a newly-designed format. FX is also set to televise another four-to six-live UFC events annually, with a mixture of additional events and programs heading to FSMG cable networks including FUEL TV.
Changes to the TUF show include a two-hour live season premiere to showcase 16 ‘all-or-nothing’ fights among 32 fighters and audience participation as viewers vote on who will fight who once coaches select their teams. TUF episodes will be edited in real time and live fights will follow each episode over a 12 week period leading up to the 13th episode which will be an all live event crowning the champion.
Changes to UFC pay-per-view events are also in the works and Fox’s first UFC Live event will air November 12th.
Well Dana White tweeted today: And that sent rumors buzzing that White and Frankie Edgar‘s trip to Los Angeles could be due to the big announcement Fox Network has planned tomorrow (Thursday, August 18th). As.
Well Dana White tweeted today:
And that sent rumors buzzing that White and Frankie Edgar‘s trip to Los Angeles could be due to the big announcement Fox Network has planned tomorrow (Thursday, August 18th). As reported by MMA Weekly:
It was released on Wednesday by John Ourand from Sports Business Daily that Fox executives were in Los Angeles for a press conference scheduled for Thursday afternoon that would be “one of the biggest announcements in FOX Sports history.”
MMA enthusiasts are expecting to hear that a major broadcast deal has been struck between UFC and Fox for a multi-year contract negotiated around $90 million dollars. To add fuel to this pretty much true theory, it’s been reported that also on route to LA today were Georges St. Pierre and Rashad Evans. The Fox Press Conference is said to be held at 10:00am (PT) in Studio 2A at the Fox Network Center. This would really suck and/or be a little funny if it has nothing to do with UFC.
Sports Business Daily and Heavy MMA are reporting that Fox Network has or is very close to inking a multi-year broadcast deal with the UFC which includes airing about 4 UFC events per year and.
Sports Business Daily and Heavy MMA are reporting that Fox Network has or is very close to inking a multi-year broadcast deal with the UFC which includes airing about 4 UFC events per year and make Fox the new home of The Ultimate Fighter reality competition series. The deal which has not been confirmed by Dana White or any reps at Zuffa (but has been allegedly leaked anonymously by someone at Fox) is said to be negotiated at or up to 90 million dollars.
White addressed the rumored deal at the UFC 136 press conference by saying: “I didn’t comment when The Wall Street Journal said we bought G4 either. When you’re in these negotiations, rumors start flying and everything else.”
Both the UFC’s contracts with Spike and Versus Networks expire at the end of this year and neither Network is expected to renew deals with the UFC.
