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| Sean Sherk: ‘Id like to be the first guy’ to fight Diego Sanchez at 155 Posted: 10 Dec 2008 08:26 AM CST
– Former UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk tells MMAWeekly.com that he wants to be the first to welcome Diego Sanchez to the lightweight division. “The Nightmare” recently made the decision to drop from welterweight. And UFC President Dana White reportedly confirmed that his next fight will be in the lighter class. If for some reason the match up is booked it would be one hell of a fight. It would also be throwing The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) champion into the deep end right off that bat. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fighting for respect: Mike Swick UFC Fight Night 16 interview exclusive with MMAmania.com Posted: 09 Dec 2008 11:30 PM CST
He didn't get it in his majority decision win over Josh Burkman (18-8) at UFC Fight Night 12. He looked significantly better, but not great, four and a half months later when he outpointed the surging Marcus Davis (15-4) at UFC 85 to earn the unanimous decision. Accordingly, Swick plans to make an even bigger statement tonight against Jonathan "The Road Warrior" Goulet (22-9) at UFC Fight Night 16: "Fight for the Troops." The fundraiser for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund takes place at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, N.C., airing free on Spike TV starting at 9 p.m. ET. Swick vs. Goulet is the co-headliner behind fellow welterweights Josh Koscheck vs. Yoshiyuki "Zenko" Yoshida. We caught up with Swick just after weigh-ins to see what he has in store for us (and Goulet) tonight, find out what it feels like to fight in front of thousands of screaming U.S. soldiers and much more. Here's how it went:
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): You're coming off an exciting win over Marcus Davis that snapped his 11-fight win streak. How important was that win for you, especially when compared with your performance in the Josh Burkman fight? Mike Swick: Ah … it was definitely important. I trained really hard, and I knew he was a tough opponent, so it was definitely important. Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Was it important for you to not only win but also perform well in the Davis fight, as compared to the Burkman fight, where some of your critics came out and said that your loss to Yushin Okami might have temporarily zapped your fighting spirit? Mike Swick: It was definitely important to prove that the Burkman fight was a one-time deal. And I'm still going to prove that with this fight. I thought the Davis fight was a good fight, but it still wasn't a finish, and it wasn't as exciting as some of my other fights. I'm still in that proving stage. I don't feel I have to do anything above and beyond what I normally do. I put everything into every fight. I fight every fight as hard as I can, or I try to. The game plan is to fight as hard as I can and to perform at my best. And if that didn't happen one time, it's just unfortunate, and it sucks, and I deeply regret it. But every fight from here on out is no different than every fight I've had before that where the priority is to perform at my best. I think if I just do what I do, it'll come full circle, and people will see that I didn't change as a fighter, I just had a bad night. Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Did you expect Davis to attempt so many takedowns given his boxing pedigree? Mike Swick: No, as much as he said he was going to stand with me the whole time, I was really surprised the first two rounds that he tried as many takedowns as he did. It really caught me off guard — maybe that was his game plan. But I countered the ones I could and just worked on beating him up on the ground. I wanted to be dominant anywhere the fight went, so that was my focus. Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): I know you had surgery on your elbow after that fight. How much of a factor was your elbow injury in the Davis and Burkman fights? How far back does that injury go? Mike Swick: My arm's been injured for over a year, so the confidence and the stability haven't been there for a while. I don't use it as an excuse, it's just really nice to have my arm back and to be healthy and to be able to use it. I'm excited to throw it a lot more in this fight than I have in the past year. Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Let's talk about your opponent for tomorrow, Jonathan Goulet. You two were supposed to fight a year ago, but the elbow injury prevented it from happening. There was some online smack talk going back and forth. Does that make the anticipation for this fight any sweeter? Mike Swick: I'm definitely looking forward to the fight, regardless of the smack talk. But it didn't go back and forth — it was just him. He just made a comment basically saying that he could beat me and trying to get the fight. He wanted to get back in the UFC and get an opportunity. That was the extent of it. I never answered back or anything like that. Even leading up to this fight, every interview I've done I've said that anytime I've described Goulet I've said that he's an exciting, well-rounded, scrappy opponent who's very tough. All his interviews are like he can beat me at this, and he can beat me at that, and he's faster than me, and he's stronger than me. It's unfortunate that he has to go that route. I don't know if his confidence level is low or if he really feels that he's better at everything. I don't know why he's saying that and not giving respect, but the bottom line is we're going to be fighting Wednesday night, so we'll see who the better fighter is. Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Give me a best case scenario for this fight — not in terms of outcome, but in terms of pace. Do you see this as a stand-up battle, do you think we'll see a little of everything? Mike Swick: As a best case, I want to go out there and keep it a stand-up fight and end it in the first round by knockout. I don't mean like 20 seconds, but I would like to go three or four minutes. I'd like to get in there and move around and fight. I definitely want to fight. I don't want to throw one punch and get a knockout. I want to get in there and scrap it up a little bit. I think he's a scrappy opponent, it could be fun. I want to see the true better striker come out ahead. If it goes to the ground or turns into wrestling or clinch steps, then I'll deal with that when it comes. But I don't want that, because I don't want the pace of the fight to slow down. Anytime a fighter clinches, the pace is automatically going to slow down. I can do things, but I can't end the fight at any given second from the clinch unless I get a knee right to the head. You gotta fight out of the clinch, you gotta get position. So just for the sake at keeping the fight at a good pace, being able to win it at a moment's notice, I don't want to clench, and I don't want it to go to the ground. I want to keep it on the feet. Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): From a conditioning standpoint, is Goulet going to be able to keep pace with you? Mike Swick: I honestly don't think he can keep pace with me for this fight. My shape has never been as good as it is right now. I feel like I can go five rounds solid. And I felt solid in the Davis fight, I felt like I could go another round at a good pace. And I wasn't in as good of shape then as I am now. I really am in the best shape. Confidence is definitely not an issue. I'm extremely confident, so that's good going in, because right from the start I'm going to push that fast pace. And if I have to, I'll be willing to keep it for the whole 15 minutes if that's what it takes. Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Tomorrow's event, dubbed "Fight for the Troops," is a benefit for the National Intrepid Center of Excellence. What's it mean to you to be fighting for such a worthy cause? Mike Swick: Ah … it's great to be fighting for this cause. I'm a huge supporter of the military. I love going to the military bases and doing seminars and training with them. We actually came to Fort Bragg a year ago and trained with the troops here, put on a seminar and did some Special Forces stuff. So it's cool to come back to the base that we were previously at. Especially for such a great cause, the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. This is a fundraiser that really makes a difference in soldiers' lives and it's great to know that we're fighting to benefit that and to raise money for that. And lastly, when you walk out, and you hear the crowd and the applause and screams, it's really cool knowing that everyone you hear is a soldier. They're all these people who are giving their lives and sacrificing their time, lives and livelihood overseas fighting in these wars for our freedom. It's humbling and motivating to know that that's who is cheering you on as you fight live. Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): The whole UFC vs. AKA thing has gotten played up in the press as of late. What's the mood like at AKA? Are there any sentiments, right or wrong, that maybe the UFC is trying to drive a wedge between the fighters and the camp? Mike Swick: Not at all. We get along better than ever. I mean, everybody was in agreement, so … Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Gotcha — that’s good to hear. Well, Mike, thanks again for the interview. I wanted to give you a chance to plug any sponsors or if you have any parting words for your fans on what they can expect to see tomorrow night? Mike Swick: I want to thank all the fans and all the troops. It's going to be a great card, and I think it's going to be my best performance. I want to thank everyone for their support. Please check out my Web page at MikeSwick.com. I got my new blog and YouTube page linked up there, and I'm trying to post as much as I can behind the scenes, leading up to the fight, during fight week and post-fight. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| UFC Fight Night 16 betting odds and lines for ‘Fight for the Troops’ Posted: 09 Dec 2008 10:20 PM CST
Time is running out! The three-hour Spike TV event UFC Fight Night 16: “Fight for the Troops” at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, N.C, begins at 9 p.m. ET tomorrow (Wednesday, December 10). And the preliminary card action begins sooner than that around 7:30 p.m. ET. That means time is of the essence if you plan to get some action. We would have passed the odds along sooner; however, these were just release this evening. Better late than never. Therefore, here are the latest UFN 16 odds:
To check out the complete “Fight for the Troops” fight card click here. Remember that we will also be the spot for up-to-the-minute LIVE results and coverage on fight night. Don't know what those numbers mean? Unclear of how much you can win when you place bets? Check out the BetUS.com MMA betting calculator RIGHT HERE and find out. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Just a matter of time: A conversation with grappling deity Robert Drysdale Posted: 09 Dec 2008 09:13 PM CST
Robert Drysdale — the 2007 Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) Open Weight tournament winner — tasted mixed martial arts victory for the first time on October 17 of this year, submitting Josh Musick with a sweet-looking first round armbar at TUFF-N-UFF. The event took place at The Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, marking the amateur debut in the sport for perhaps the most dangerous 205-pound Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu player on the planet today. For about a decade, Drysdale terrorized the international jiu-jitsu circuit, winning medals and finishing some of the best in the business (see Garcia, Marcelo among others). The American-born world champion recently returned to the United States from Brazil and settled back in to "Sin City," however, to prepare for a successful transition to mixed martial arts. He's off to a good start. “My fight was a great experience. I was a little nervous. I guess that’s normal. Soon as I was out there it was like, ‘There is no way I am going to lose this fight, I trained too hard for this, I’ve been training for too long.’ I finished him with an armbar in the second minute of the first round. Everything went as planned, exactly the way I wanted it to go. It was a big deal to me, liking it, and I absolutely did. I’m made for this. This is what I was born to do. I couldn’t do anything else. I have to be fighting. This is where I belong and I felt that.” Finding that sense of belonging and purpose wasn’t hard for Drysdale. In addition to his accomplishments in jiu-jitsu, he felt a calling to mixed martial arts that started long before MMA became the international phenomenon that it is today. “Before I got into jiu-jitsu back in 1998, mixed martial arts was something I always had in mind. It’s something I wanted to do, but I wanted to do jiu-jitsu first. I started doing well in competition and to me it did not make sense to go into MMA without being accomplished in jiu-jitsu. I just wanted to really win those competitions. It was important to me to accomplish those things before I went into MMA. I feel I did what I wanted to do and it was just time to move on. It was time to start all over.” Starting over meant realizing that he was no longer the top dog in his profession. Drysdale had the grappling skills, but MMA is a complex sport, and only the most well rounded athletes can find success at the top of their division. “In MMA I feel like a beginner, like I’m re-learning. In MMA I feel like a white belt. It’s so new to me. It’s so cool. I feel like I am in a position where I have to put my mind into it and learn. Like the other day I was kickboxing and not doing so well and I was like ‘What is going on?’ You’ve got to remember this is exactly how I felt when I started jiu-jitsu. I’m getting beat and I don’t like it. It’s frustrating but you really get your mind into it and you get better as you go. I’m having the time of my life. I’ve got a great job. My job is doing what I love so I cannot complain. MMA so far has been a great experience for me.” Drysdale was last seen on Wednesday nights on Spike TV, serving as an assistant coach for Frank Mir on Season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF). While he may have looked like a natural, Drysdale admits the experience was a little intimidating. “It was fun. I had just met Frank like a week, maybe two weeks before the show. It was great. Actually I was pretty close to jumping in the show as a fighter myself. But I was so new into my MMA experience I was like ‘You know what? You might want to wait a little longer.’ Then the opportunity came up to go on as a coach. I hadn’t even cornered people. It was all really new to me. The show gave me the confidence. I got to train with a lot of the guys. I was like ‘I can do this, no problem.’ It was definitely one of those experiences you will remember for years. Thirty years from now I can say that it was really cool. I did that. That was really a lot of fun.” The experience on TUF 8 was just another notch in the belt of Drysdale, who admits to having not just a passion for learning and competing, but also for teaching. “I’m excited. I love teaching and training. I have been teaching and training my whole life so this is nothing new to me. I really enjoy sharing my knowledge with people. It’s really rewarding for me to watch my students develop and learn new things. It’s really cool to see a student pull something off that you just taught him - more rewarding then when I get it. It’s the greatest feeling. I really enjoy teaching and its part of learning too.” There is no question that Robert Drysdale has a bright future in mixed martial arts. Aside from his humility, he seems to have a keen sense of focus towards his career aspirations and also his expectations of himself. “You can expect a guy who is absolutely in love with the sport. I try not to put pressure on myself, like ‘I got to beat that guy or I got to win that competition’ because I was never like that in jiu-jitsu. I was just enjoying myself. It’s got to be fun. I’ve got to be happy. I’m absolutely going to be out there. I’m talking to MMA organizations right now. I haven’t signed anything but I should be fighting by the end of January, my first pro fight. It’s just a matter of time before I get to where I want to be.” Light heavyweights, you’ve officially been put on notice. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Frank Mir on Minotauro Nogueira UFC 92 fight (Video) Posted: 09 Dec 2008 07:36 PM CST | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Roger Huerta signs five-fight contract extension with the UFC Posted: 09 Dec 2008 06:59 PM CST
Apparently cooler heads have prevailed. After a very public battle between fighter and promoter, talented lightweight Roger Huerta (20-2-1) has signed a new five-fight contract with the UFC according to MMAWeekly.com. This of course comes on the heels of Huerta’s bombshell in Fight! magazine last August when he revealed that he wasn’t pleased with his contractual arrangement with the UFC. In addition, he was seemingly ticked that the promotion twisted his UFC 87 pre-fight interviews to insinuate that his fight with Kenny Florian would be a "cake walk" (Huerta was actually comparing the fight to his rough and tumble upbringing). Huerta lost to Florian via unanimous decision and afterward tried to provide some context to the controversial remarks he made just before the fight. His statements clearly agitated UFC President Dana White who referred to Huerta — once considered the Latino golden boy who could do no wrong — as a "moron." Prior to his new contract, "El Matador" had one fight remaining with the UFC and there was speculation that he and the promotion were "far apart" on reaching an agreement. Some of Huerta’s demands included a guaranteed six-figures per fight as well as points on the PPV - a better deal than current lightweight champion BJ Penn enjoys. Sounds pretty outrageous but I guess like Jon Fitch and Randy Couture before that, all’s forgiven once pen touches paper. It’s also interesting to note that Huerta is confirmed as being on the roster for the upcoming release of the ‘UFC Undisputed 2009′ video game set to hit shelves this Spring. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Andrei Arlovski 360: ‘On the Road to Reckoning’ video series debut Dec. 19 Posted: 09 Dec 2008 06:36 PM CST
The marketing machine behind the “Pitbull” is working with a professional Chicago-based production crew, which is responsible for several popular video-based Web sites, to create a seven-part online series leading up to colossal clash. It will be dubbed “Arlovski 360: On the Road to Reckoning,” following the life and times of the Belarusian as he prepares right up to — and just after — his fight against the “Last Emperor.” In fact, six episodes will air before the highly-anticipated bout and the final installment will cover its immediate aftermath. All of the episodes, which will be about 10 minutes in length, will first appear on his Web site (www.arlovski.com) every Friday, beginning on December 19. Recently, top-tier online sports destinations have expressed interest in possibly airing the documentary-type Webisodes, which could mean that the series receives even greater exposure. At the very least, all seven episodes will be uploaded to major video sharing sites such as YouTube.com shortly after their premieres. In addition, “Arlovski 360: On the Road to Reckoning” has piqued the interest of several major sponsors. In particular, the popular male-focused “Axe” brand, which we’re told Arlovksi uses to keep his mane silky smooth, will make its MMA sponsorship debut in the series. Check out a video trailer of what to expect from “Arlovski 360: On the Road to Reckoning” after the jump. It looks sick. And interested fans should sign up at Arlovski.com to get the updates on the show’s release and when the episodes come out.
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| UFN 16 weigh-in results for ‘Fight for the Troops’ Posted: 09 Dec 2008 05:20 PM CST
The official weigh-in event for UFC Fight Night 16: “Fight for the Troops” at Sports USA Bar in Fort Bragg, N.C., is in the books. And fortunately for the 20 fighters who tipped the scales there were no surprises … other than the fact that welterweights Luigi Fioravanti and Brodie Farber will now compete at a catchweight of 173 pounds. Here are the official results:
*Note: Fighters are allowed to weigh one pound more than the division limit in non-title fights. Remember that MMAmania.com will also provide LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the three-hour main card action on fight night, which is slated to air at 9 p.m. ET on Spike TV from the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, N.C., on Wednesday, December 10. Of course, the latest quick updates of the prelim bouts will begin to flow earlier than that at around 7:30 p.m. ET. It’s going to be a solid night of mixed martial arts action — be sure to check us out for all the pre, during and post-fight/show coverage you can handle. For all the UFC Fight Night 16: “Fight for the Troops” weigh-in pics head over to CombatLifestyle.com. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BJ Penn show video (Episode two) Posted: 09 Dec 2008 02:40 PM CST | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Razak Al-Hussan and Thomas Hearns separated at birth Posted: 09 Dec 2008 01:23 PM CST
Al-Hussan — who trains out of Des Moines, Iowa — makes his Octagon debut against the last man to hold the WEC light heavyweight title, Steve Cantwell, tomorrow night at UFC Fight Night 16: “Fight for the Troops” on Spike TV. For an old list of MMA look-a-likes click here. Feel free to add some fresh ones in the comments section below. Have fun. And thanks to MMAmania.com reader “Mario” for the assist via MMA.tv. |
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