UPDATE: Mac Danzig out of next month?s anticipated clash with Donald Cerrone

The preliminary portion of UFC 131 took a significant hit today, as it appears Ultimate Fighter Season 6 winner Mac Danzig has been forced to withdraw from his match-up with WEC stand-out Donald Cerrone due to a torn muscle and will be sidelined for at least the immediate future if not slightly longer. Their bout [...]

Source: http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2011/05/17/mac-danzig-out-of-next-months-anticipated-clash-with-donald-cerrone/

Terrance Aflague Yoshihiro Akiyama  Gilbert Aldana  José Aldo 

"Shark Fights 15: Villasenor vs. Camozzi" full card lineup

Shark Fights is quickly becoming one of the stronger regional promotion’s in the country. There secret to success has been the use of top tier talent in one or two fight stints. With names such as UFC and Srtrikeforce vets Paul Daley, Jorge Masvidal, Trevor Prangley, and Keith Jardine having made their way through the [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/05/14/shark-fights-15-villasenor-vs-camozzi-full-card-lineup

Royler Gracie Ryan Gracie Peter Graham Forrest Griffin

Some Early Thoughts On Daniel Cormier vs. Jeff Monson

Recently, it was announced that longtime MMA veteran Jeff Monson, who once challenged for the UFC Heavyweight Championship, had finally landed himself in another major-level promotion. When Monson makes his Strikeforce debut on June 18, 2011 as part of Strikeforce?s ?Overeem vs. Werdum? event, he?ll be stepping into the cage against hot prospect Daniel Cormier, [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/05/17/some-early-thoughts-on-daniel-cormier-vs-jeff-monson

Grant Campbell  Gesias JZ Calvancante  Luiz Cane  Dos Caras Jr  

Crash Course: Bellator 45 Edition

Hello once more fans and friends and welcome to the latest edition of ?Crash Course?. ?Crash Course? is a series of articles designed to give readers a quick rundown on all the relevant information they need to know heading into an upcoming major MMA event. Everything from why you should watch, what you should expect [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/05/20/crash-course-bellator-45-edition

Forrest Griffin Tyson Griffin Karn Grigorian Karen Grigoryan

What you need to know from this week on “The Ultimate Fighter”

If Season 13 of "The Ultimate Fighter" has been missing anything, it's a bit of that pizazz from Brock Lesnar's WWE days. The former WWE champ still hasn't gone back to his roots, but between Chris Cope's Ric Flair-like "wooos" and Junior dos Santos screaming "what" like he was watching "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Episode 9 felt like being at a wrestling event.

It also turned out to be about and looking past an opponent and weak excuses.

Cope is supposedly the weak link on the show, but he proved everyone wrong again by pulling the upset on Team dos Santos' No. 1 pick Shamar Bailey.

UFC president Dana White called it before the fight saying Bailey looked one-dimensional in his opening round win and was overlooking Cope. Cope wasn't exactly Mr. Aggressive, but he successfully defended against nine takedown attempts and gassed Bailey on his way to a surprising 20-18 win.

Dos Santos was shocked.

"That [decision] was terrible for me," dos Santos said. "I looked at Dana and said 'what?'"

Bailey was also in disbelief saying, "he fought well, but I don't know about that. You can't win backing up the whole time."

White seemed pleased that Cope got the decision and wasn't hearing Bailey's lame excuse during a one-on-one conversation shortly after the fight.

"I just want to let you know I took a risk," Bailey told White. "I wanted to show you I could bang and not just wrestle. I left it in the hands of the judges. I could've took the easy way out and just took him down."

White quickly pointed to Bailey that he did try to take Cope down throughout the fight and had zero success.

There was no controversy in quarterfinal fight No. 1. Knowing that Ramsey Nijem is a strong wrestler, Brock Lesnar worked with Clay Harvison on his takedown defense. Harvison was drilled hard on getting out of the clinch.

Practice didn't make perfect. He was taken down just 10 seconds into the fight. When he tried to get back up he left his back exposed. Nijem worked to get the hooks in, then flattened out Harvison before locking on a rear-naked choke. It was all over in 56 seconds.

Next week it looks like Tony Ferguson goes psycho in the TUF house. He also faces Ryan McGillivray while Zach Davis battles "Cold Steel" Chuck O'Neil.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/What-you-need-to-know-from-this-week-on-The-Ult?urn=mma-wp2391

Murilo Bustamante  Grant Campbell  Gesias JZ Calvancante  Luiz Cane 

ESPN MMA Live: Jon Jones, Chael Sonnen, Roy Nelson

On this week’s edition of ESPN MMA Live, Jon Anik and crew analyze the latest stories in MMA including Jon Jones’ hand injury and Chael Sonnen’s CSAC suspension. Roy Nelson also joins the show to talk about his upcoming fight against Frank Mir at UFC 130 ESPN MMA Live Archive If you have trouble playing [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mmaconvert/~3/rRqKISdqZ2w/

Josh Burkman  Mikey Burnett  Murilo Bustamante  Grant Campbell 

Rampage Jackson Says Matt Hamill 'Lit a Fire' Under Him for UFC 130 Fight

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If you take Quinton "Rampage" Jackson at his word, time is running short on his mixed martial arts career. The former UFC light-heavyweight champion reasserted on Thursday that he plans to call it quits at age 35, and he turns 33 next month. Until then, he still has a few big fights ahead of him. Up until recently, however, he didn't view UFC 130's main event bout with Matt Hamill as one of them.

In recent interviews, Jackson made headlines when he said he wasn't particularly excited to face Hamill. On a Thursday teleconference, Jackson said that wasn't unusual for him, as he no longer gets excited about facing anyone. But, he also added that changed a bit when Hamill commented recently that he knew he was "going to break his will."

"My main motivation is to win," he said, "but I think Matt made a mistake when he said he's going to break my will and I'm going to overlook him. That lit a fire up under my ass. That made me train a little bit harder so I can break his will, and make sure I can outclass him."

Jackson admitted that was the just the pick-me-up he needed to spark him.

"Honestly in the beginning, fighting him, I wasn't 100 percent motivated as I would be vs. someone who had beaten me before or something like that," he said. "But when he said that, that motivated me as much as I've been motivated in a fight."

Jackson (31-8) is coming off a split decision win over Lyoto Machida, and might find himself in the title picture with a win over Hamill, a possibility he said is "the last thing on my mind."

For his part, Hamill (10-2) said his comments stemmed from his belief that Jackson would overlook him. Over the last several years, almost all of Jackson's fights have come against top five fighters, a level he has yet to reach. Jackson said that in preparation, he's worked overtime on his wrestling, acknowledging that he "really respects" his opponent's prowess in that part of the game while shooting back, "I feel I'm a pretty decent MMA wrestler, too."

Hamill and his manager Duff Holmes alluded to their potential game plan, with Holmes saying "He's going to be out-wrestled and he's going to be taken down. There's just no way around it." Later, when asked if he felt Jackson has concentrated on his boxing to the detriment of the rest of his MMA skills, Hamill said, "Yeah, that's why I want him."

A win over Jackson would be the biggest of Hamill's career, and thrust him into the title picture with a six-fight win streak. With so much at stake it might be easy to look ahead, but Hamill is trying to focus on the job at hand.

"I've always tried to take it one fight at a time," he said. "I feel like I'm in the semifinals of a wrestling bracket. And I've never lost in the semifinals of a wrestling bracket."

With his time running short, Jackson too admitted there is some importance in going after the belt again, but also wanted to continue to leave fans with memories from a crowd-pleasing style, even if they didn't necessarily understand why he might not be around much longer.

"If anybody's smart, they want to have an exit plan from MMA or any full contact sport," he said. "You can tell which fans are smart and which ones are kind of ignorant if they just think you're going to fight and just be done. What happens after you get done fighting? Just run away? I don't understand what they think. That stuff doesn't bother me at all. It's my life, it's my family I take care of. I have my goals and my plans. Things I want to do to make me happy. That's all I care about is me and my family. The fans? I'm just here to entertain them, but do I care about them the same way as I care about my family? Hell no."

 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/05/19/rampage-jackson-says-matt-hamill-lit-a-fire-under-him-for-ufc/

Mac Danzig  Karen Darabedyan Viacheslav Datsik Marcus Davis 

Exclusive pictures from UFC 129, Part One

Check out pictures from Tracy Lee from UFC 129 -- everything but the title fights. With so many fights, we had to break it up into two. See Randy Couture's final fight, the massive cut on Mark Bocek's head, Rory MacDonald's suplex and much more.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Exclusive-pictures-from-UFC-129-Part-One?urn=mma-wp1973

Yasubey Enomoto Mark Epstein Tom Big Cat Erickson Martinsh Egle

Jake Shields' Head Trainer on the UFC 129 GSP Fight, Nate Diaz The Skrap Pack's Success - UFC 129

*** Watch Complete 1/2hr HD Episodes on http://www.MMAheat.com *** MMA H.E.A.T.'s Karyn Bryant spends a few minutes with Jake Shields' head trainer, Tareq Azim, and hears why GSP will be pushed harder than he ever has been before when he faces the former Strikeforce champ. Tareq talks about Jake's weight cutting and preparation, and also gives insight to the Skrap Pack team's psyche (teammates include Nick and Nate Diaz, Gilbert Melendez and Daniel Roberts) Tareq also lets us know how ready Nate Diaz is for his fight against Rory MacDonald, which will be seen on Spike TV before the UFC 129 PPV event. Be sure to visit http://www.MMAheat.com for more interviews and archived episodes of our 1/2 hour TV show. Nós falamos Português! * We're on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MMAheat * Follow MMAheat on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MMAheat * Follow Karyn on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/KarynBryant

Source: http://mmalice.com/ufc-129/jake-shields-head-trainer-on-the-ufc-129-gsp-fight-nate-diaz-the-skrap-packs-success-video_4dc261c46.html

Paulo Filho Mirko Cro Cop Filipović Luiz Buscapé Firmino Spencer Fisher