Thursday, July 30, 2009

UFC blog for latest news, videos, results, betting odds, fighter interviews and MMA rumors - UFCmania.com

UFC blog for latest news, videos, results, betting odds, fighter interviews and MMA rumors - UFCmania.com

Nick Diaz vs Jay Hieron Strikeforce welterweight title fight slated for Aug. 15

Posted: 29 Jul 2009 08:00 PM PDT

Foul-mouthed fightmonger Nick Diaz will face International Fight League (IFL) veteran Jay Hieron for the newly-created Strikeforce welterweight championship at the "Carano vs. Cyborg" event from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., on Aug. 15, MMAmania.com has learned.

Hieron — who was training to fight Paul "Semtex" Daley this weekend at Affliction: "Trilogy" before the promotion folded — apparently beat out Phil Baroni as a late replacement for Joe Riggs, who was hospitalized and forced out of the rematch against Diaz last week.

Diaz comes into this fight on an absolute tear. Aside from dismantling the clearly-overmatched Scott Smith at June's "Lawler vs. Shields" event, the Cesar Gracie-disciple busted up the legendary Frank Shamrock en route to a second round TKO at the last San Jose-based event back in April.

The Stockton, Calif., native is riding a five-fight win streak and has finished each of his opponents in dominating fashion.

Hieron is also currently enjoying a five fight winning streak, including his most recent first round knockout win over the previously unbeaten Jason High on the Affliction: "Day of Reckoning" card back in January.

The Xtreme Couture trainee was a staple under the now defunct IFL, fighting nine times for the promotion in a span of just under two years. Since then, however, "The Thoroughbred" has only been in action twice, defeating High earlier this year and also out-pointing Chris Kennedy en route to a unanimous decision victory at a "Super Fights MMA" event last October.

Hieron and Diaz were actually rumored to face off at the Strikeforce event back in June; however, the promotion instead ended up booking Scott Smith as Diaz's opponent for the event. It was a fight that Hieron wanted real bad at the time.

That's because he was part of KJ Noons corner the night he and Diaz had that melee in the cage following KJ's technical knockout win over Yves Edwards at Elite XC: "Return of the King." There's even video footage of Hieron throwing a punch at the Cesar Gracie-trained black belt.

Now he may get another opportunity to do that several times over, and much more, on Aug. 15.

Strikeforce: "Carano vs. Cyborg" will feature a 145-pound title fight between female fighting sensation Gina "Conviction" Carano and her nemesis Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos as well as a lightweight title unification bout between reigning champ Josh "The Punk" Thomson and interim champ Gilbert "El Nino" Melendez.

For all the latest on this ever-changing fight card click here.

Josh Barnett’s camp responds to ‘alleged’ positive drug test from the CSAC

Posted: 29 Jul 2009 07:03 PM PDT

Josh Barnett — who recently failed a pre-fight drug screening for anabolic steroids prior to a showdown with Fedor Emelianenko at Affliction: "Trilogy" on Aug. 1 — is now speaking out against the ‘hasty decisions’ that were made in light of a test result that “The Babyface Assassin” now refutes.

Barnett's positive test led to Affliction MMA's house of cards to come crashing down, calling it quits as a fight promoter and returning to the UFC as a corporate sponsor with its clothing brand. Several intriguing fights were scrapped as a result, forcing fighters to search for work elsewhere … Barnett included.

Now the former PRIDE and UFC star is calling into question the integrity of those results alleged by the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC).

From his official press release:

The media has reported that Mixed Martial Arts Heavyweight fighter Josh Barnett would not be eligible to fight Fedor Emelianenko at Affliction Trilogy as he was denied his California license due to an alleged positive test for 2α-methyl-5α-androstan-3α-ol-17-one, which is purportedly a metabolite of a banned substance.

Mr. Barnett was shocked at these allegations and was extremely disappointed to learn that Affliction had made the hasty decision to cancel the August 1st event in its entirety. Mr. Barnett vehemently denies intentionally ingesting any banned substances in preparation for the August 1st fight and he is looking forward to presenting his case to the California State Athletic Commission.

In the meantime, Mr. Barnett has yet to learn of the results of the B sample testing and he has not received any of the documentation that provides further details of the alleged positive sample despite numerous requests. In fact, the documentation that Mr. Barnett has received raises serious questions about the integrity of the sample and the validity of the results themselves.

At this time Mr. Barnett would like to thank his fans and colleagues for their ongoing support and faith in him. He intends to vigorously defend himself against these allegations and hopes for a swift resolution to this matter so he can get back to what he does best — fighting!

I would like to further add that Josh is as disappointed as all of his fans and supporters that he will not be fighting on August 1st. He also empathizes with all of the other fighters that were scheduled to appear on the card and shares their frustration and shock at the cancellation of the entire event.

Barnett indicated that he intends to appeal this most recent steroid finding with the CSAC. His second "B" sample is currently being tested to confirm the initial positive result.

If it's upheld it could mean that Barnett's license to fight in the United States could be revoked for a good amount of time, forcing him to remain exiled in Japan indefinitely. With a looming Sengoku heavyweight grand prix looming and a successful wrestling career, however, it may not be such a bad twist of fate after all.

Keep in locked on MMAmania.com as we'll let you know more on Barnett's future when it's announced.

Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley signs four-fight contract with UFC

Posted: 29 Jul 2009 05:34 PM PDT

paul semtex daley

Former Elite XC number one welterweight contender and Cage Rage champion, Paul Daley, is the latest fighter to join the deep Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) talent-rich 170-pound pool, according to Fighters Only magazine.

The report indicates that “Semtex” signed a four-fight contract to compete inside the Octagon. No possible opponent or date for his debut is known at this time; however, UFC 105 at the Manchester Evening News (MEN) Arena in Manchester, England, on Nov. 14 would seem to be a good fit for the Nottingham native.

He’ll certainly be more than ready — Daley was training to collide with Jay "The Thoroughbred" Hieron at Affliction: “Trilogy” this weekend before the event was scrapped.

Daley — who boasts a sick Muay Thai game and has the ability to finish his opponents at any time — has 16 career stoppages because of strikes in his 21 wins (75 percent). The British brawler most recently put his stamp on Junior Barata, needing less than three minutes to take care of business.

He has now won his last two contests after dropping two out of three to Nick "The Goat" Thompson and Jake Shields prior to that. Daley holds notable career wins over Xavier Foupa-Pokam, Duane Ludwig, John Alessio, Mark Weir and many others.

Fedor Emelianenko inks deal with EA Sports; Negotiations with UFC still ongoing

Posted: 29 Jul 2009 02:31 PM PDT

fedor affliction press conference

Despite a report from the Los Angeles Times that set the mixed martial arts community on fire yesterday, which indicated that the top heavyweight fighter on the planet, Fedor Emelianenko, was close to finally "finalizing a deal" with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), M-1 Global (M-1) today held a press conference that essentially nixed that possibility once again.

For now, anyway.

It was difficult to hear the audio, but the message was clear: Negotiations between Emelianenko and the UFC are "diplomatic" and ongoing, but M-1 will only work under "co-promotion conditions" to spread the word of MMA globally.

Because as Vadim Finkelchtein, who runs M-1 to produce international MMA events and also manages Emelianenko, said during the call, the UFC cannot be the only show in town and that "he's worked too hard" over the years building M-1 to spread MMA worldwide.

Reality check: Wouldn't those efforts be best served long-term with Emelianenko as the undisputed best fighter in the world as current or former UFC champion? Sure, he'd have to defeat Brock Lesnar, but that's not really the point.

The point is Finkelchtein appears to be holding all of Emelianenko’s cards. And we can only hope that the seemingly self-serving statements that he made today were designed to up the ante and force the hand of the casino billionaires who run Zuffa (yes, even though Station Casinos recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection) at the negotiating table.

Who knows.

But for now what we do know is: Emelianenko is not headed for the UFC, which apparently made a very generous offer that Finkelchtein noted "wasn't interesting to us," right now, other promotions such as Strikeforce are still in the mix, and he will fight "very soon."

Oh, and Emelianenko recently agreed to "headline" the upcoming EA sports MMA video game, which will more than likely go over like a lead balloon over at UFC and THQ corporate headquarters.

Until Friday, Maniacs, when "As Fedor Turns" continues at the UFC press conference.

BJ Penn not sweating the small stuff in Florian’s ‘last’ title shot

Posted: 29 Jul 2009 01:57 PM PDT

Yesterday's UFC 101: "Declaration" media conference call gave UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn and current number one contender Kenny Florian a chance to square off before their Aug. 8 fight. The build-up was all part of the game for Penn, who frequently finds himself in a personal grudge match with his opponents heading into a bout.

"I don't know how I get caught up in this stuff," Penn explained, admitting that he's had personal feuds with past opponents, including former lightweight champion Sean Sherk. "The Prodigy" famously accused Sherk of "cheating" after the "Muscle Shark" tested positive for banned substances following his title defense against Hermes Franca.

And then there's reigning welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre.

"The whole GSP thing got started into hyping up the fight," Penn says, "and then Prime Time wanted to portray me as an asshole instead of some guy passionate about winning his dream fight. And then Dana goes and calls and starts speaking about stuff he doesn't even know about, saying I'm surrounded by yes-men. And then back and forth, and that just blew out of proportion."

But beyond Penn's criticism of Sherk and the media — even beyond his past feuds with former champions Matt Hughes and Jens Pulver — sits the grand-daddy of them all: "Greasegate," or the infamous greasing scandal that rocked UFC 94: "St. Pierre vs. Penn 2."

And this, albeit complicated enough, brings us to the current challenger to BJ Penn's belt, Kenny Florian, who inadvertently found himself tied to the middle of the controversy because of a certain text message he may or may not have sent prior to the January 31st bout.

But thanks to the conference call, we now have both sides of the story … sort of.

In a nutshell: Florian claims he had a conversation with Dave Weintraub — a writer following Penn at the time — that referred to Florian's previous opponent, Roger Huerta, as a greasy fighter and also told Weintraub to wish Penn "good luck" in his upcoming fight against Georges St. Pierre.

Penn claims the message received was that GSP greases, which, as Penn puts it, "actually led to us making the pre-bout warning in the fight at the arena when we got there" — the pre-fight warning being that the Penn camp warned ringside officials to keep an eye out for illegal greasing tactics used by GSP's camp … which wouldn't have been a big deal, except that there were illegal greasing tactics used by GSP's camp.

Thus followed the media frenzy that was "Greasegate."

During yesterday's conference call, Florian corrected stories from Penn's camp that he ever accused GSP of greasing, saying he was only referring to Huerta, "Those are the only accusations that I've ever made about a fighter."

And as the champion finally summed up, either Florian's lying, Penn's lying or Dave Weintraub got his texts confused.

"As far as that whole text message thing with Kenny. That's small stuff. We gotta go in there and fight for the championship of the world. That's small stuff, that text message stuff. (Laughs) I don't know how I get caught up in all this stuff. (Laughs) I gotta laugh it off myself."

Not sweating the small stuff may, in fact, be Penn's best strategy, given his opponent's considerable evolution in the sport since his UFC debut at The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) Finale back in April 2005. The TUF Season One Finale saw an out-sized and out-gunned Florian lose in the first round to Diego Sanchez in a middleweight contest.

Since then, Florian has dropped down two weight classes, earned a title shot for the then-vacant lightweight strap against Sean Sherk (which Florian lost in October 2006) and then continued to demonstrate improved stand-up and ground games en route to wracking up six more wins (nine UFC wins total) over such lightweight fighters as Joe Stevenson, Roger Huerta, Joe Lauzon and Din Thomas.

In fact, it's his two lone Octagon losses that Florian cites as being key to revamping his game, both mentally and physically.

"Did I have to revamp what I did?" Florian said, "Yeah, of course. One of the most important things is to be honest with yourself, and say, 'Listen, look at all these mistakes that I made.' Sometimes it was mental, sometimes it was physical, technical, sometimes all together. So those fights have really helped me a lot."

Whatever doesn't kill you, as they say …

Florian continued, "Those (losses) are what motivate me. I don't want that to ever happen again. It's made me a much, much different fighter. I use that as fuel and I use that as lessons. Not only my losses, but my wins. I'm never satisfied with any performance that I've had. I'll go back and watch it two weeks later and be like, 'Man, that was terrible.' So it's a work in progress."

Has the revamped Florian evolved enough to outwork the champion BJ Penn?

Regardless, Penn says, he "can't sit here and dwell on that fact, I gotta dwell on the fact that Kenny Florian — this is his second title shot and quite possibly his last — and I gotta get out there and I gotta keep the belt."

The two get a change to fight about it on August 8 at UFC 101.

UFC 101 video: Ricardo Almeida ready for a great fight against Kendall Grove

Posted: 29 Jul 2009 11:10 AM PDT

UFC Countdown to 101 debuts on Spike TV August 4

Posted: 29 Jul 2009 09:44 AM PDT

Countdown to UFC 101 will debut next Tuesday, Aug. 4, at 11 p.m. ET on Spike TV to promote the upcoming pay-per-view (PPV) event scheduled for the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on Aug. 8.

The hour-long special presentation will provide a glimpse into the preparation and training camps of the fighters set to headline the show, including main event participants and heated rivals BJ Penn and Kenny Florian.

We'll also get the skinny on the light heavyweight showdown that features Anderson Silva, stepping out of his comfort zone at 185-pounds to challenge the feisty Forrest Griffin, on the main card. And let’s not forget about Ricardo Almeida taking on the dangerous Kendall Grove.

For those who miss the “Countdown to UFC 101″ premier it will re-air on Thursday, Aug. 6 at 2 a.m. ET and then again on Saturday, Aug. 8 at 6 p.m. ET.

Remember that MMAmania.com will provide LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the main card action on fight night (Saturday, Aug. 8), which is slated to air at 10 p.m. ET on PPV from the Wachovia Center.

To check out the complete UFC 101 fight card click here.

UFC Quick Quote: ‘Rampage’ Jackson feels threatened by Rashad Evans

Posted: 29 Jul 2009 09:43 AM PDT

“You know what, during the taping of the show … We got into it every time we faced each other, you know? It got challenging for both of us to keep our hands off of each other. He don’t like me and I don’t like him, so it got really hard for me not to tee off on him and I’m sure he felt the same way. I think Rampage wants to be the only one. I don’t know if he wants to be the only brotha. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know, he’s just very competitive with me. I think besides all of that and the fact that he feels threatened by me, a lot happened when we got into each others face at the UFC when he fought Jardine. After that, we got into it on our own time. We got into it on our own personal time. I think that one of his biggest problems is that he’s fallen in love with his power. He counts on his power. He’s like Tyson after he got rid of Kevin Rooney. He just relied on his power because he knew he had it. Well that’s what Rampage is doing. He’s not as well-rounded as he was when he fought for Pride.”

–- Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Rashad Evans tells FightHype about the drama of facing fellow ex-champ Quinton Jackson during the filming of The Ultimate Fighter 10, set to debut after UFC Fight Night 19 on Sept. 16. “Sugar” and “Rampage” will finally settle their score later this year at UFC 107 in Memphis, Tennessee. With both fighters still in the hunt for the 205-pound gold, expect things to continue to heat up as time goes on. Early predictions are always welcome. Sound off…

WEC 43: Damacio Page vs Akitoshi Tamura on tap for Sept. 2

Posted: 29 Jul 2009 09:43 AM PDT

With WEC 42 just over a week away, a fantastic 135-pound match-up between two of the divisions rising stars in Damacio “The Angel of Death” Page (11-4) and Akitoshi “Ironman” Tamura (14-7-2) has been added to the promotion’s next event, which is scheduled to go down at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown, Ohio on September 2.

Tamura will make his second start as a bantamweight at WEC 43 after previously competing in the featherweight division. In fact, “Ironman” once held the Shooto 145-pound title in Japan before coming stateside to compete in the WEC cage.

He does hold five wins by submission, but he’s no stranger to grinding out victories, with more than half his wins coming by way of decision.

So far that trend hasn’t changed during his tenure with the Zuffa-owned promotion — Tamura most recently outpointed former bantamweight number one contender Manny Tapia at WEC 37 on the judges scorecards.

And in his debut with the promotion he was on his way to another fight being settled by the scorecards before tapping out to a Wagnney Fabiano arm traingle choke with only 12 seconds remaining in the fight.

Page, on the other hand, likes to finish his opponents … quickly.

Eight of his professional wins have been decided in the first round. He’s coming off a dominating early first round knockout victory over a very tough Marcos Galvao at WEC 39: “Brown vs. Garcia.”

Seven months earlier, however, his aggression backfired on him and he was submitted by the division’s current number one contender, Brian Bowles, with a first round guillotine choke.

The Greg Jackson disciple has compiled a record of 2-1 during his time with the promotion and with his mix of size, power and speed, Page is believed to be one of the most dangerous 135-pound fighters on the roster.

If there’s one knock on “The Angel of Death” it’s that his submission defense has caused him problems in the past, with three of his four losses coming by way of tapout.

Going up against a talented grappler like Tamura, that could certainly be an issue in this fight. We’ll find out on Sept. 2.

WEC 43 will be headlined by an interim lightweight championship fight between Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and winner of two straight under the WEC banner, Ben “Smooth” Henderson.

Stay tuned to MMAmania.com for more on this developing fight card.

BJ Penn gets chummy with Fedor Emelianenko and Gegard Mousasi while training for UFC 101 (Video)

Posted: 29 Jul 2009 07:48 AM PDT

Props: BJ Penn.com
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Recent Articles on Sherdog.com

Loading...

UFC rss

Loading...

Recent Interviews on Sherdog.com

Loading...