Couture’s jacked up elbow prevents fights with Nog.
January 10, 2009
Props: MMAlinker
Rehabilitation on a surgically repaired elbow and a leading role in Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables prompted Randy Couture to decline a fight against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (31-5-1, 1 NC) for the first half of 2009, the five-time UFC champion confirmed to SI.com.
“I had to,” Couture, who turns 46 in June, said via text message. “Had to have my left elbow scoped. There were two loose bodies in there! Old nagging injury.”
A pair of abnormally large bone spurs were removed from The Natural’s elbow on Thursday. While training for his failed UFC heavyweight title defense in November against Brock Lesnar, Couture aggravated the joint, which was mined for a pair of 16-centimeter spurs.
This sucks, Couture vs. Nogueira was definitely a “must have” fight for this new year. Randy wanted it, Nog wanted it, the UFC wanted it, and most importantly, the fans wanted it. Two of the best heavyweight fighters ever, now in the same organization, both coming off big losses for championship belts, it seemed like destiny to have these two fight. I mean, don’t get me wrong, this fight could still happen given Randy’s body heals up sooner rather than later, but let’s be realistic, he’s only got so much time left in this sport, maybe 1 or 2 more fights left in him (Nog and Fedor most believe), and injuries sustained at this period of his life are naturally going to take longer to heal, and might not even heal completely. I don’t know what’s down the road for Captain America, all we can do is hope that he heals completely and by that time, still wants to fight Minotauro.
Another legit grudge match on approach.
January 10, 2009
Props: Matt-Hughes.com
Just got a call from Joe Silva and as of right now it looks like I’ll be fighting Matt Serra in Vegas on May 23rd. This is not 100% confirmed, but I believe it is going to be on this date. -matt
Going by the “month-by-month UFC event” rule, this looks like it’ll be for UFC 98. All I can say is that I’m excited as hell that we’re getting some updated news, regardless if it’s not 100% confirmed. This fight was originally supposed to happen at UFC 79 in December of 2007 but most know that Serra got injured and had to pull out, Georges St. Pierre stepped in and destroyed Hughes to claim the interim UFC welterweight title, and then destroyed Serra at UFC 83 to become the undisputed UFC welterweight champion.
The one thing I absolutely love about this is the fact that you either love or hate both guys, nothing inbetween. MMA forums across the planet are going to be a mess of trash-talking and insults, devout Hughes fan’s will probably kill themselves if he gets his ass beat by Serra, and Serra fans will never let it down. As of right now, this is the only rumored fight for the event, so there’s no telling if it will be the main event or act as the co-main event. Either way, I’m pumped, for the sake of MMA, this fight needs to happen, and I can’t wait to see it go down!
On another note, I’m taking Serra via TKO. Don’t hate.
Hasta luego Roger Huerta!
January 9, 2009
Props: Sherdog
The popular lightweight has turned down a new five-fight contract with the UFC to pursue a career in acting in 2009. Huerta has one more fight on his current contract with the UFC that will see him back in the Octagon some time before December. After that, Huerta said he’d re-evaluate his options.
Once a poster-boy for the Hispanic UFC fans, Roger Huerta quickly fell off the radar after his unanimous decision loss to Kenny Florian at UFC 87, not to mention pissing off the UFC suits when he cried about how much money he wasn’t making. While unexpected, I guess I’m not completely surprised. Most knew that he was starring in the film adaptation of Tekken, that arcade-style fighting game, where was taken on the role of Miguel Caballero Rojo. He’s also previously mentioned how he’d like to pursue acting and modeling as a long-term career, and I guess it might be best for him, considering his boss called him a moron.
If there’s one thing to learn from MMA fighters who turn into actors, like Randy Couture’s and his oscar nominated role in Steven Seagals’ direct-to-DVD film “Today You Die”, or Rich Franklin’s terminator-esque role as I.S.S.A.C. (Intuitive Synthetic Autonomous Assault Commando <– WTF!?!), in another direct-to-Wal-Mart bargain-bin film titled “Cyborg Soldier”, it’s that Roger Huerta will make an awesome addition to the low-budget-piece-of-shit-action-films genre over in Hollywood. Good luck Roger, I look forward to not watching any of your horrible movies.
.
The illustrated version of how Fedor vs. Arlovski will play out.
January 9, 2009
I found this on the Ultimate-Fighter Forums, couldn’t tell you where it originated from, but it’s hilarious and I think anyone who knows anything about MMA will find it amusing. After the jump you’ll see it, enjoy.
No “hard time” for Quinton Jackson
January 8, 2009
Props: Yahoo Sports
The former UFC light heavyweight champion accepted a plea bargain in Orange County court on Thursday in a case stemming from his arrest on July 15, 2008, in exchange for a reversal of his plea from not guilty to guilty. With the acceptance of the plea bargain, Jackson’s sentencing will be deferred to Jan. 7, 2010. If he meets the requirements of the plea bargain, the felony count will be dismissed and he will only be sentenced for the misdemeanor. If he fails to meet the requirements of his plea bargain, he will be charged and sentenced on both counts.
I’m sure he’ll be able to sleep better at night now. It looks like the “requirements” for his plea bargain will be consisting of the following, and failing to complete any one of these will get him charged on all original counts:
- Pay restitution on all original charges, including the felony.
- Seek mental heath therapy and pass bimonthly reports done by his mental heath physician.
- 200 hours of community service speaking to youths.
Not too bad considering what the guy could have faced had he not made the plea bargain, which could’ve easily scored him a few years in prison. I’m happy to see this put somewhat past him, it looks like he’s got his life back on track, he’s with a new camp, he finally defeated his arch-nemesis Wanderlei Silva via knocking him the hell out, and it looks like he’s next in line for a title shot against current champion Rashad Evans. I think 2009 will be a great year for Rampage, and I wish him all the best.
The Miller brothers are badass.
January 8, 2009
Props: MMAJunkie
Let me tell you why. Jim Miller, the younger of the two, recently stepped up with only 8 days notice to replace an injured Frankie Edgar for his fight against Matt Wiman at UFC: Fight for the Troops last December. Not only did Jim go into that fight with limited time to prepare, he also won the fight with a decisive unanimous decision. Now, his older brother, Dan, will replace an injured Alessio Sakara for his upcoming fight with three-time NCAA Division I national wrestling champion Jake Rosholt at Ultimate Fight Night 17, set to take place on Febuary 17th.
Now, Dan’s got a lot more time to prepare for this fight than Jim did for his last bout, but Rosholt, if you didn’t know, is widely considered to be the greatest wrestler in all of Mixed Martial Arts right now. He’s transitioning over from the WEC, after the organization axed the light-heavyweight and middleweight divisions, and he’s definitely an up-and-coming prospect for the UFC, even though he’s still very new to the sport. Dan’s got a dangerous fight ahead of him, but both he and his brother are warriors who will step up when needed and give a great fight no matter who the opponent is, it’s impossible for me not to respect and admire what both of them are willing to do for the sport and for their young and prosperous careers.
The Miller/Rosholt fight, as of right now, is going to air on the preliminary card of UFN 17, but if all goes well, I’m pretty sure we’ll see it on the aired card. Below is the current fight card for the Febuary 17th event, which will be shown live on Spike TV.
Main Event:
- Hermes Franca vs. Joe Lauzon
Main Card:
- Mac Danzig vs. Josh Neer
- Nick Catone vs. Amir Sadollah
- Denis Stojnic vs. Cain Velasquez
- Steve Bruno vs. Matthew Riddle
Preliminary Card (Un-televised:
- Rich Clementi vs. Gleison Tibau
- Luigi Fioravanti vs. Anthony Johnson
- Dan Miller vs. Jake Rosholt
- Rob Emerson vs. Kurt Pellegrino
- Matt Grice vs. George Sotiropoulos
Got a Playstation 2? Like MMA? Read this!
January 7, 2009
I have two guilty pleasures, one is reality television, and the other is Fire Pro Wrestling Returns on my Playstation 2. You might be thinking… “Why the hell is this douche promoting a pro-wrestling game on his MMA blog?” Let’s get this out of the way, Fire Pro Wrestling Returns is not just a pro-wrestling game, it’s much much more than that, and in the following video I’m going to show you why!
More after the jump….
Is Thiago Silva really undefeated?
January 7, 2009
Not according to the fight record for the him over at MMAUniverse. He’s listed as 14-1, with the loss being against Segio Canudo via disqualification at Shooto - Brazil 2 back in 2003. Now, seeing that made me very interested, considering that the UFC is hyping his upcoming fight with Lyoto Machida as a “battle between two undefeated light heavyweights”. Now, I know you can’t go off of what one site says, so I looked for some more validity to it…and I found this at MMA-Core (scroll down to the bottom and hit the ‘fights’ tab). Interesting…..it says the same thing, Thiago Silva is 14-1 as a professional.
Further investigation over at Sherdog, revealed a Shooto - Brazil 2 event, but the dates are different and so is the fight card, as a matter-of-fact, neither Thiago Silva nor Segio Canudo even appeared on the card listed at Sherdog. I also ran Sergio Canudo’s name through Sherdog’s fight finder, but nothing came up. I also ran Thiago and Sergio through MixedMartialArts.com, and it shows this:
Japan loves their freakshow matches!
January 7, 2009
Props: Nightmare of Battle
Out of all the great fights that K1 Dynamite!! 2008 put on, the Bob Sapp/Kinniku Mantaro (anime character) got the highest ratings at 18.1%. Now, we in the states didn’t get to see this event live (unless you found a stream online), so the only ones who actually contributed to the ratings were the Japanese. That just goes to show, those people love their jacked-up, freakshow fights and I’d expect that’s why PRIDE put so many of them on during their 10 year span.
Overall, Dynamite!! did horrible though bringing in the viewers, below are the overall ratings for the three parts of the December 31st event:
- Dynamite!! Part 1 (19:00-21:00) 11.8%
- Dynamite!! Part 2 (21:00-23:00) 12.9%
- Dynamite!! Part 3 (23:00-23:24) 8.4%
FEG stated that they were looking to achieve an average of 15%, which obviously they didn’t do, I guess next year they’ll be looking to bring in the major draws like K1 MAX champion Masato, as well as Kid Yamamoto, those guys have historically proven to drastically improve the numbers.
UFC 95’s free on Spike…Thanks Dana!
January 7, 2009
Props: MMAJunkie
Ultimate Fighting Championship fans (and their wallets) will get a break next month for UFC 95.
As rumored and expected, the overseas event will, in fact, air on Spike TV rather than pay per view.
Sources close to some of the fighters on the Feb. 21 fight card today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that the event, which takes place at the O2 Arena in London, England, will air via tape delay on the basic-cable station.
An official announcement could come from the UFC and Spike TV as early as this week.
Good news for the “economically challenged”, which is probably a majority of us. I probably would’ve purchased it regardless, the main event between Joe Stevenson and Diego Sanchez was very appealing to me, as is the Gouveia/Marquardt bout, but it’s nice knowing I can put what would have been the $44.95 into something else, like a videogame….just kidding, sort of.
After the jump you can find the current UFC 95 fight card, which takes place on Feb 21st, over in London, England.
