via assets.heavy.com

 

 

The main event at UFC 106, a rematch between Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz, has split the MMA community in half.  While Forrest lost the first contest, he has steadily improved since, on his way to a light heavyweight championship.  Tito has continued his slide, victim of age and injury.  Does he have enough to win the rematch, fresh from back surgery?  Everyone has an opinion, including MMA fighters:

Marcus Davis: "I would like to see Forrest do his thing. But I heard Tito is all healed up. I want to pick Forrest but he's been on such a bad streak. My heart says Forrest. But if I had to put money on it, I would pick Tito."

Tim Credeur: "I see it going for Forrest. He's just advanced so much as a fighter in the past few months since the Anderson Silva thing. There was a lot of pressure on Forrest to perform. He really didn't like the pressure, and it was really frustrating him. There were a lot of things involved with his mindset. After that fight, it really gave him the ability to release a lot of stuff and just take a load off. And since then, his game has just really, really gone through the roof. All of his training partners express the same feeling. He's learned to love the game again. I think he's going to finish Tito."

Pat Miletich: "I gotta pick Griffin based on heart"

More and more UFC 106 analysis at Heavy.com.

 

There's a lot of talk about the fighters heading into UFC 106 - both those who are fighting and those who had to drop out because of illness or injury. But behind the scenes, it's the sponsors that make fights like UFC 106 possible for fans around the world. 

 

In an exclusive pre-fight interview, Baroni acknowledged one of his sponsors and talked about his return to UFC. 

 

"I came back to the UFC because the UFC is my home, and I’m ready to come home again. The UFC is a chance to climb back on the biggest stage in mixed martial arts."

 

"Serious Pimp is an established business that has been around for a very long time. They were sponsoring fighters back when MMA wasn't ‘cool.’ Plus they are OG and, I always get asked where I get my sunglasses!"

 

Baroni left UFC with a 3-5 record. He makes his return to the UFC at 13-11 following fights in Pride, EliteXC, Cage Rage, and Rumble On The Rock. Having previously fought at 185, he trimmed down to 170 for UFC 106. Fighting on the same card as Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin, Baroni vs. Sadollah is one of three welterweight bouts. Despite mixed reviews, the fight promises to be worthy of UFC fans.

"Phil Baroni is a symbol of this country’s fighting spirit," said Damian Kutzner, CEO of Serious Pimp. "This fight was promoted to the main card after Brock Lesnar announced that his illness would keep him out. Fans should expect some serious, in-your-face action from these fighters."

 

Shooto's South American branch has released the full card for next Saturday's show in Flamengo, Brazil - and, as usual, it's loaded up with talent from Andre Pederneiras' Nova União camp.

In the main event, lightweight prospect Hacran Dias will look to rebound from the first defeat of his career - a contentious decision loss to Ui Cheol Nam in Korea - against Relma Team up-and-comer Luis Carlos.

On the undercard, Dias' stablemate Eduardo Dantas tangles with Carlos "Betão" Alberto for a second time - "Dudu" took the first bout with an armbar submission - and BJJ convert Cláudia Gadelha faces unknown commodity Ana Levi in the first-ever Shooto SA women's scrap.

Shooto Brazil 14
Bennett Methodist Institute Auditorium
Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Hacran Dias (11-1-1 / Nova União) vs. Luis Carlos (Relma)

Amilcar Alves (10-1 / Nova União) vs. Wendell "Negão" Oliveira (6-6 / Gracie Fusion)

Paulo "Guerreiro" Dantas (18-5 / Fighter Sport) vs. Maurício Facção (1-2 / Gracie Barra BH)

Eduardo "Dudu" Dantas (7-2 / Nova União) vs. Carlos "Betão" Alberto (7-1 / Renovacao Fight Team)

Carlinhos Tai (1-0 / Nocaute) vs. Julio Cesar Merenda (0-1 / Tata Fight Team)

Zeilton "Nenzão" Rodrigues (4-2 / Pejor/Delfim) vs. Albino Mendes (2-2 / Minotauro Team)

Cláudia Gadelha (1-0 / Nova União) vs. Ana Levi (Beto Padilha)

Dinarte Silva (10-3 / Nova União Kimura) vs. Julio Beba (Malhado)

Henrique Mello (10-2 / Nova União) vs. Wellington Berguinho (1-0 / Beto Padilha/Pejor)

Felipe Olivieri (5-2, 1 NC / Boxe Thai/Nova União) vs. Alan Chatubinha (1-9 / Relma)

With the good news of Brock Lesnar's recovery being announced, comes another. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, or "Lil-Nog" as people call him, says that his brother, Rodrigo is recovering well from staph infection and will be back to training within a few weeks:

"Rodrigo will leave the [staph] infection to heal for about 15 or maximum 20 days. He's good. The arm is already deflating, it had swollen as much as it was going to," he told Brazilian site Terra, adding that he is not sure when his brother will be fit to fight.

 "You have to wait for the infection to recede before returning to training. I do not know if he will be ready in time to fight at UFC 109 but within a few weeks he will return to training," he explained.

HT: Translated by Fighters Only from Terra.com.br

Longtime friend and training partner of Karo's, Neil Melanson, has come out with Karo's permission and explained the reason for Karo pulling out of his UFC 106 fight with Dustin Hazelett.

"Karo’s had some problems with an addiction to pain medicine due to an injury he sustained a few years ago. Then when he started having these anxiety problems, it didn’t seem like the anxiety pills were helping him. The only thing that was helping him was the pain medication that he had been taking for his injuries. That’s when he just started down that slope. It’s just one of those situations where you have two guys that sit down to have a drink, and you have one guy that can go home and he’s fine, and the other guy has to go out and get wasted every single time because he’s an alcoholic. I think that maybe with the pills, that Karo is the second guy. Maybe he’s the guy that can’t take them here and there, or can’t use them effectively...

  He told me that he was on pain medicine, but he wanted to get off. He had a plan and he was working his way to get off of it. About a month ago he was taking about half the amount that he usually does and he was pretty optimistic. He was really trying to push it. He was going through some withdrawals and he would try to push it as hard as he could to get off the stuff. He really had a plan to be off three weeks prior to the fight and he really wanted to clean up. He really wanted to do this right. It was really important to him and his family. I hadn’t spoken to him for just a little bit, and I guess he tried, but he couldn’t.

  He contacted me and told me about the situation, and I said, ‘Look, just sleep on it and we’ll talk about it tomorrow’. I met with Greg Jackson and we had a little conversation about everything. From there I called Karo and I just told him, ‘Well you’re better off being honest now than piss testing and getting in trouble with the commission’. He did the right thing there and told them. He messed up, but people shouldn’t hate him for it. The guy has a legit problem right now. He did the right thing; he didn’t cheat, he didn’t lie, he didn’t do anything wrong. He just had a problem that he tried to overcome and he couldn’t do it. I think that everybody can sympathize with that. Karo has put on great shows in the past, and I think that he felt a lot of pressure to do that again...

  My heart goes out to him. I know he’s suffering right now. With the UFC dropping him, he’s a mess. He’s a complete mess. Just imagine what it’s like to have an addiction problem, and to lose everything like this all in one day. But at the end of the day he still did the right thing by coming clean and not trying to test, or fight, or lie, or anything like that. So before people start hating on him I hope they realize that when push came to shove, he did the right thing.

  He could have disrespected the sport by going out there and fighting. A lot of people try to beat the test somehow. He could have done a lot of things to make the sport look bad. He could have done that because he was greedy, or because he needed money, or whatever it was, but instead he did the right thing and he didn’t make the UFC look like jerks by testing dirty. I know Dana is saying some things right now because he’s really upset about it, but Dana cares about him. Dana has always been really good to him. I know he’s probably pretty upset, and I would be too. He’s pulled out of a couple of fights before, and if you’re a promoter that would piss you off pretty bad.

  Once he gets cleaned up and back on his feet, he’ll probably go out there and compete. If it’s not with the UFC it will be somewhere else. If Karo got clean and worked hard he’d be back in the top five again. He was ranked in the top five for his weight class for over three years. You don’t do that by being a slouch."

Melanson explains how Karo did the "right thing" by not fighting and fessing up.  The right thing would have been to check himself into rehab and not accept a fight until this whole thing was cleared up.  That being said, sober up Karo and hope to see you back one day.

Neil Melanson Interview

Following his upset victory over Mike Swick last weekend, does Dan Hardy deserve a title shot? 

If we are being entirely honest, the answer is no.  In reality though, the welterweight division is a bit of a mess right now as far as challengers go. Jon Fitch is working towards another shot, but he's not there yet. A win in his upcoming rematch with Thiago Alves will likely put him in that position, but he has to win first.  As for Alves, he will need another win or two beyond a victory over Fitch to get back in discussion for a title shot.  Josh Koscheck is still trying to rebuild himself after that KO loss to Paulo Thiago, and champion Georges St. Pierre handled him pretty easily in their fight in 2007. The Swick/Maritn Kampmann contest was supposed to decide a title challenger, but that got blown out of the water, and then Kampmann got blown out of the water by Paul Daley. Daley could become an attractive option as a future challenger, but only has one fight in the UFC and needs another win or two to get to a title shot.

That leaves Anthony Johnson, who couldn't make the 170lb limit in his last outing. He'll need to show 1)that he can still make the weight limit, and 2)handle the BIG step up in competition he's making against Koscheck. If he does both of those, he's realistically still another good win or two away from a title shot in an ideal world. He's still young, and you get the feeling the UFC would love to have Johnson as a centerpiece of either the welter or middleweight divisions.

As for Hardy, he's built up a bit of a fan base with a run of exciting fights. Does he finish them all? No, but when you can put on exciting three round fights, you don't necessarily need to in order to build up your reputation. On one hand, a win is a win is a win, and on the other, an exciting decision is just as good as a KO. The man is also a talker. He's already trash talked GSP a bit in the lead up to the Swick fight, and expect him to keep that up in building to title shot. Since he'll be the first Brit to challenge for a title, the UFC can do the fight in London or in Montreal and bring in a huge gate, and probably some solid PPV numbers.

And then GSP will smash him. It's a good comeback fight for GSP. Hardy can do some damage with his fists, but GSP with take him down and pound a win fairly easily. You get a PPV main event, use Hardy's limited appeal to it's full ability and you don't risk damaging their lone remaining, easy to deal with, easy to market, top 3 pound for pound fighter. Plus, you also don't rush a strong challenger and waste a big money fight. Koscheck's visibility and notoriety could make him a good challenger with a couple of wins, and Johnson takes his first real step towards being a contender Saturday by being in the semi-main event for the first time.

So, in a pure 'sport' sense,  Hardy probably doesn't deserve a title shot. But it's not entirely outlandish seeing as GSP has cleaned out the top of the division already, and it makes good business sense.

_________________

Click here for part 1.

HT: mma.fanhouse.com, Sherdog.com, fightersonlymagazine.co.uk , heavy.com, Cagewriter.com

From MMA Unlimited mag via mma.tv

Hardest hit is Aaron Riley who has a mandatory 60 days no contact after getting roughed up by Ross Pearson; the only suspensions that would run longer were if Swick, Kelly, Brown, Wilks and Hamman don't get favourable news from their doctors, in which case each could be out as long as 180 days - ouch!

Full list after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

I was introduced to MMA as a casual boxing fan, so it's no surprise that I was among the many new fans that valued the striking portions of matches over mat work. And like so many of those fans, I figured out pretty quickly that the vast majority of the boxing in MMA was being done by scholastic wrestlers that needed that extra dimension to make some real noise. While that practice continues to turn off lots of boxing enthusiasts, it immediately appealed to me as a completely different skill (which it obviously is), and actually got me interested in wrestling, which I had never been curious about in my entire life.

To this day, wrestler/boxers take a pretty considerable lead over other archetypes when I think of my favorite fighters, past and present. Of course there are those who make people cringe with ineffective flailing or the dreaded lay'n'pray, but whose ass hasn't been out of its seat at some point while watching warriors like:

Hendo

Randy!

Rampage

Pulver

Tyson Griffin

Fitch

Rashad

Mike Brown

Koscheck

And even guys just beginning bright careers like Brian Bowles. And while I am NOT a fan of his theatrics, I'll watch BROCKLESNAR fight any day of the week.

Who else out there loves an all-american meatgrinder that doesn't mind trading leather? And which of those guys did I forget to mention?

Another week, another event. So join already.

Rodriguez over at Fightlinker somehow thinks he is capable of leading a charge against Bloody Elbow, the biggest betting camp on MMA Playground and vanguard of a new cultural innovation. This notion is immediately refuted by a personal performance which results in $260 spendable, fake dollars, a loss of $740 off the starting amount, and a 57% picking percentage for fights. One can compare this to BE's camp leader who manages $27,582 in phony cash and a picking percentage of 70%. As for the MMA4Real, we are tied or nearly tied as a camp in the judged criteria after 7 events, which, of course, really pains me to write or admit.

We still have time to step our performance with the three events remaining in the season. Beat MMA4Real. Destroy Fightlinker.

Reminder on prizes. UFC 105 Results. UFC 106 Playground lines in extended entry.

Important: If you wish to join the BE betting camp, send me a message on MMA Playground with your BE user name or leave a comment in this thread so I can send you an invite. Please make sure your MMA Playground login name is the same as your BE name or as close as possible so we can give you the proper credit.

Continue reading this post »