UFC on Fox 8 has lost one of its preliminary card bouts. The heavyweight scrap between Matt Mitrione and Brendan Schaub has been reportedly removed from the July 27 event.
A training camp injury suffered by Mitrione necessitated his removal from the fi…
UFC on Fox 8 has lost one of its preliminary card bouts. The heavyweight scrap between Matt Mitrione and Brendan Schaub has been reportedly removed from the July 27 event.
A training camp injury suffered by Mitrione necessitated his removal from the fight card, according to Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com. The website also reported that the fight would be rebooked on a future card and that Schaub would not get a replacement opponent.
Mitrione (6-2) and Schaub (9-3) both halted two-fight losing streaks in their last outings. Mitrione had dropped a decision to Cheick Kongo and been knocked out by Roy Nelson before earning a quick knockout over Phil De Fries in his most recent bout. Schaub had two first-round KO losses to his name before rebounding with a unanimous-decision win over Lavar Johnson in his last fight.
The two fighters had been friendly, according to Schaub. Speaking to Rick J Lee, he said, “I love Matt, he knows this. I wish I could fight any other heavyweight, but you just can’t. One thing I can guarantee you is that Matt and I will put on a show.”
That friendship seemed to fade a bit when the two got in a Twitter war, which ended with Mitrione pretty much washing his hands of the friendship.
The fight was to be Mitrione’s first since he was briefly suspended for comments he made about transgender fighter Fallon Fox.
UFC on Fox 8 will take place on July 27 from the Key Arena in Seattle, Washington and will be headlined by a title fight between UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson and John Moraga. The co-main event will be a welterweight scrap between highly ranked Rory MacDonald and Jake Ellenberger.
Jake Ellenberger understands the power of the retweet. And in the run-up to his UFC on Fox 8 tilt with phenom Rory MacDonald, Ellenberger knows exactly what he’s doing. In the UFC’s welterweight title picture, MacDonald has fame on his side. If th…
Jake Ellenberger understands the power of the retweet. And in the run-up to his UFC on Fox 8 tilt with phenom Rory MacDonald, Ellenberger knows exactly what he’s doing.
In the UFC’s welterweight title picture, MacDonald has fame on his side. If that pendulum is to swing Ellenberger’s way, it will of course need to happen in the cage. But you can get the momentum going beforehand.
Over the past few weeks, the 28-year-old Ellenberger has taken a series of Sonnen-esque personal swipes at the 23-year-old MacDonald (14-1) on Twitter:
St. Pierre: I stole your truck. I have the pics of you & Rory. Let’s talk
MacDonald has responded with his characteristic awkward humorlessness, attempting to respond in kind, but only succeeding in making Ellenberger’s japes all the wittier by comparison:
@EllenbergerMMA 4some1 with such a week jaw u sure use it alot 2 talk shit when ur done buildin ur self up ill b there 2send u back 2reality
But it’s more than just tweets. In a recent interview with Bleacher Report, Ellenberger extolled at length his personal problems with his next opponent:
I just don’t like him and it’s something I’m definitely looking forward to. I love how much the media has pushed him, and that makes it better for me…Rather than base things on his accomplishments, it’s more about his potential…This is how this fight is going to go. Buffer screams. Rory runs. Jake swings. Rory sleeps. Crowd screams.
Despite this explicit detailing of his dislike, Ellenberger will probably claim after the fact that he was simply gaming the system to build interest in the fight. That’s fine. It’s up to each listener whether to believe that standard line or not.
Either way, hype is an important skill, especially in a post-Sonnen world, where a good-but-not-great middleweight can talk his way upward into two title fights with Anderson Silva and one with light heavyweight champ Jon Jones (not to mention a coaching gig on The Ultimate Fighter and an open chair behind just about any broadcasting desk).
Ellenberger also has a point—to a point—about the media trading on MacDonald’s potential. But MacDonald has done some things: In his last four fights, he has plowed through Nate Diaz, Mike Pyle, Che Mills and B.J. Penn. His only professional loss came to Carlos Condit, a fight in which MacDonald was probably winning until Condit pulled a late stoppage out of his hat.
You might also remember MacDonald’s pre-fight Twitter feud with Penn, which culminated in MacDonald toying with and embarrassing the diminished ex-champ in an easy decision win.
Now, Ellenberger, here in 2013, is better than Penn. A winner in eight of his last nine, Ellenberger is a wrestler who learned he could knock dudes out with his hands.
But MacDonald is cut from a newer mold, a purebred mixed martial artist raised on every discipline simultaneously. He can take the fight just about anywhere he likes and succeed there. And not only can he succeed, he can humiliate you.
Now that he’s letting his mouth go, Ellenberger is proving a capable promoter. But with his personal attacks, he runs the risk of making a sympathetic figure out of a pretty hard-to-humanize fightbot in MacDonald.
Even more risky, however, is waking a sleeping giant and getting an emasculating butt-whipping on national television. Ellenberger seems confident he can handle whatever MacDonald can dish out.
But MacDonald has shown he makes a far tougher grudge match inside the cage than out.
UFC 162 is set to go down on Saturday, July 6 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Headlining that card will be a bout between UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and top-ranked contender Chris Weidman.We will update the results f…
UFC 162 is set to go down on Saturday, July 6 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Headlining that card will be a bout between UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and top-ranked contender Chris Weidman.
We will update the results for that fight card as they happen:
Anderson Silva vs. Chris Weidman
Frankie Edgar vs. Charles Oliveira
Roger Gracie vs. Tim Kennedy
Tim Boetsch vs. Mark Munoz
Dennis Siver vs. Cub Swanson
Andrew Craig vs. Chris Leben
Norman Parke vs. Kazuki Tokudome
Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Dave Herman
Edson Barboza vs. Rafaello Oliveira
Seth Baczynski vs. Brian Melancon
David Mitchell vs. Mike Pierce
Following Saturday’s event, the UFC will take a break until July 27. When the promotion returns it will be at Seattle’s Key Arena for UFC on Fox 8, a card that will be headlined by a flyweight title bout between champion Demetrious Johnson and challenger John Moraga.
What follows are some questions we have heading into that upcoming fight card.
Luckily, the Young Assassin will remain a free man. As first reported by SI’s Melissa Segura yesterday, Guillard has been sentenced to supervised probation through June 2015, as well as community service.
Luckily, the Young Assassin will remain a free man. As first reported by SI’s Melissa Segura yesterday, Guillard has been sentenced to supervised probation through June 2015, as well as community service.
Another Twitter war to titillate insatiable UFC fans is being served up by the ever dependable Matt Mitrione against his former TUF teammate Brendan Schaub. Treading dangerously close to the line, especially after recently serving out a suspension for …
Another Twitter war to titillate insatiable UFC fans is being served up by the ever dependable Matt Mitrione against his former TUF teammate Brendan Schaub.
Treading dangerously close to the line, especially after recently serving out a suspension for another public rant against transgender fighter Fallon Fox, Mitrione has had some choice words for Schaub who, for his part, has been relatively restrained.
Relatively.
It all started on Monday with a comment from Mitrione on Twitter which the heavyweight promptly deleted. But according to MMA Junkie, it said: “@BrendanSchaub looks like Adam Sandler f—ed Corky from ‘Life Goes On’.”
However, that failed to get a response from Schaub. So, Mitrione, after deleting his previous expletive filled message, went on a tirade.
Hey @BrendanSchaub you asked to fight me, cool. Them sparse whiskers you grow can’t hide that chin, son! #YaDunPhuckedUp
Whether Schaub was too busy getting on with the actual business of mixed martial arts, i.e. training for his fight against Mitrione, or he only just managed to log onto his computer that evening, he eventually did respond:
I might look like adamSandler/corkey mix your wife when we did appearances together sure seemed to like it. How’s that going by the way?
The Twitter “war” will no doubt serve its purpose in reigniting interest in the career of two heavyweights languishing in the doldrums of the division. Up until April, Mitrione was on a two-fight losing streak and was in danger of getting cut until Phil De Fries head-butted Meathead’s hip, earning Mitrione his first victory in two years.
Similarly Schaub was riding two embarrassing first round KOs at the hands of Anotnio Nogueira and Ben Rothwell before he too came good against Lavar Johnson earning a lacklustre three-round decision win.
Neither fighters has impressed lately and both are trading off their celebrity from their 2009 appearance on TUF. It will be make or break time for both when they finally meet on July 27 at UFC on Fox 8.
One of the biggest battles a fighter faces throughout their career is to stay in the lane of constant progression. While various setbacks are inevitable, the ability to remain focused on the process and push through adversity can make all the differenc…
One of the biggest battles a fighter faces throughout their career is to stay in the lane of constant progression. While various setbacks are inevitable, the ability to remain focused on the process and push through adversity can make all the difference.
Jake Ellenberger has been scrapping his way through the most talent-rich division under the UFC banner for the past four years and knows firsthand what it takes to stay on task.
Since making his debut in 2009, “The Juggernaut” has amassed one of the most impressive resumes of any fighter currently competing at 170 pounds. While the 28-year-old Omaha native was edged out in a razor-thin decision by Carlos Condit in his first go inside the Octagon, Ellenberger bounced back with fire.
The Reign Training Facility staple has collected victories in eight of his last nine showings, including a current streak where he’s notched back-to-back wins over proven veterans.
His most recent outing resulted in a brutal knockout over former Strikeforce champion and middleweight contender Nate Marquardt at UFC 158 in March. The victory over Marquardt in Montreal solidified Ellenberger’s position in the welterweight division’s upper tier and kept him ahead of the pack in a heated title race.
While the win created talk of contention, Ellenberger refuses to get caught up in the possibilities of what may come. Instead, the former Marine has locked his focus on the next challenge in his path, and that will come when he steps in to face surging young talent Rory MacDonald at UFC on Fox 8.
The surging contender will look to keep his momentum rolling against the Tri-Star product and continue to display the one thing he believes is the most difficult to achieve in MMA—consistency.
“This is the hardest sport in the world to remain consistent at,” Ellenberger told Bleacher Report. “You have a bad night, or you don’t find your rhythm, anything can happen, and there is a chance you lose or don’t do well. It’s not like football or a lot of other sports where you can go home after practice, sit on your couch, eat whatever you want, forget about it and try again tomorrow. Mixed martial arts is a lifestyle.
“You have to live that lifestyle in order to keep on top of your game. Well, you don’t have to, but you won’t do well. Consistency won’t happen if you don’t have the discipline to live that lifestyle. It’s not the most fun lifestyle—that’s for sure—but if you are going to be consistent and stay at the top of the game, then it’s something you have to do.
“My work ethic has played a large role in the consistency factor,” he added. “Also, my support system and team have been huge. There are a lot of different variables, but your work ethic is going to dictate how consistent you are. I’ve been continuing to build my mind. I’ve been more focused on myself than any specific fight. I’m sharpening the blade, so to speak. The focus has remained the same.”
For Ellenberger, success inside the cage has come from his ability to build from a strong wrestling foundation into one of the division’s heaviest hitters. Five of his eight victories in the Octagon have come as the result of his devastating power, two of which earned the California transplant “Knockout of the Night” honors.
Those results are the fruits of nearly a decade spent refining his craft as a mixed martial artist. While it is easy to stick with what works, Ellenberger refuses to be stagnant. Whether he’s tweaking the process of his weight cut or implementing new tools into his skill set, Ellenberger is consistently pushing himself to reach the next level.
“Adjusting is definitely part of the process,” Ellenberger said. “You make mistakes and you learn from them—at least most people do. I know when I feel my best and what I have to do to make that happen. But it is definitely a trial-and-error process and a constant battle.
“It’s been a pretty smooth transition to keep moving forward with the momentum, but that is something you have to continuously acknowledge. You have to keep adapting and continuing to re-invent yourself. I’ve been fighting now for almost nine years and you have to consciously be able to keep evolving your skills and mindset. As soon as you stop doing these things, you start making mistakes and start moving in a direction you don’t want to go.”
The bout with MacDonald will fill the co-main event slot for the UFC’s eighth showing on the Fox network. In addition to holding the biggest names on the card, the fight between two of the sport’s top welterweights will come at a crucial time for the 170-pound division.
The action has never been hotter in the welterweight ranks. In addition to this fight having an impact on the future title picture, it has also turned into a heated grudge match, with both fighters exchanging barbs via Twitter.
“This is a huge, pivotal fight for the welterweight division,” Ellenberger said. “It can set the tone for the division going into the end of the year. It’s a huge fight and there is no bigger place than on Fox. Then you factor in that I don’t like him, and that should make it fun to watch. I just don’t like him and it’s something I’m definitely looking forward to.
“I love how much the media has pushed him, and that makes it better for me. They like to embellish this young kid. Rather than base things on his accomplishments, it’s more about his potential. I really don’t know why, to be honest with you. Rory is as fake as the food he is named after…there is a restaurant in Lincoln, Nebraska named Rory’s.
“This is how this fight is going to go,” Ellenberger offered in conclusion. “Buffer screams. Rory runs. Jake swings. Rory sleeps. Crowd screams.”
Duane Finley is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
UFC on Fox 8 has lost one of its preliminary card bouts. The heavyweight scrap between Matt Mitrione and Brendan Schaub has been reportedly removed from the July 27 event.
