Frank Mir, Roy Nelson Put 'Friendship' to the Side at UFC 130

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LAS VEGAS - Much is being made in the buildup to UFC 130 on Saturday about the friend vs. friend heavyweight bout between Frank Mir and Roy Nelson.

Make no mistake - the two Las Vegas natives and residents and frequent training partners are far from enemies. But as Nelson said Wednesday, let's not take this whole "friends" thing too far.

"It would be different if we were really friends - best friends," Nelson told MMA Fighting prior to the press conference for Saturday's pay-per-view at the MGM Grand. "There's a difference between business acquaintances and friends. I consider a friend any time we eat together at the same restaurant, or he's eaten at my house or I've eaten at his house. We train together - jiu-jitsu. It's like (a reporter) who interviews me - does that mean we're friends too?"

Thirty minutes later on the press conference dais, the two seemed chummy enough. And they even mock-hugged before their pose-down photo op. But Mir said for this particular fight, it affects more than just the two of them in the cage - it's the people in their inner circles.

"In this situation with Roy, it's difficult because we have a lot of mutual friends," Mir told MMA Fighting. "James Johnson is in his corner on Saturday night - the guy was one of my groomsmen in my wedding! So we have a lot of mutual relationships where I might not be his best friend, but we have mutual best friends that go back and forth."

And that, Mir said, affected how he approached the fight - not wanting to make any comments about Nelson, even in jest, that their mutual friends would take the wrong way.

"I think I've kind of kept, on purpose, any kind of poking or badgering to a minimum, not because I didn't want to fight him," Mir said. "I know Roy gets it. I get it. It's the close friends around us that I worry about that I'm going to have to see 20 years from now, people who are a godfather-of-my-kids-who-train-with-him type of scenario."

Nelson (15-5, 2-1 UFC), the Season 10 heavyweight winner of "The Ultimate Fighter," beat Mir eight years ago in a grappling tournament that had slipped under most radars until it was dredged up from the archives after the fight was booked. But both have acknowledged they're two completely different fighters than back then.

Mir, Nelson and UFC president Dana White joked Wednesday about the fight booking causing mini-battles over gym schedules and who would wear what color shorts on Saturday. But Mir (14-5, 12-5 UFC) said despite not having any lunch dates planned with Nelson, he's still traversing new territory with this fight.

"This will be the closest I've ever been to any of my opponents," Mir said. "I'm cordial with everybody - I try to be. But it's a fight."

Nelson said in this particular case, it all just comes down to one thing: Friendship may be friendship, but business is business.

"It's just one of those things," Nelson said. "You'd prefer to fight somebody that you really would rather derail their whole career. I have no ill will toward Frank. But it is what it is, and if the UFC wants you to fight whoever, then that's what you do to get paid."

 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/05/26/frank-mir-roy-nelson-put-friendship-to-the-side-at-ufc-130/

Dos Caras Jr   Phil Cardella Roan Jucao Carneiro Shane The Engineer Carwin 

Picture of the day: Two Silvas, a Hughes and a Penn

Zuffa is holding its annual Fighters' Summit in Las Vegas this week, and Strikeforce and UFC fighters have been tweeting pictures from the sessions that cover everything from injuries to using social media. Bantamweight Eddie Wineland snapped this picture of several MMA legends, just sitting and listening to presentations.

That's UFC middleweight champion and Yahoo! Sports pound-for-pound king Anderson Silva and former PRIDE champion Wanderlei Silva in the foreground. Sitting in the table in front of them is UFC Hall-of-Famer Matt Hughes, and who appears to be former welterweight and lightweight champ B.J. Penn. Between them, they have five major championships and a record of 122-29-3.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Picture-of-the-day-Two-Silvas-a-Hughes-and-a-P?urn=mma-wp2157

Edwin Dewees  Nick Diaz  Tadhg Steamfist Dixon Joe Doerksen 

Bellator 44's "Fight of the Night": Cooper vs. Shlemenko

At Bellator 44 last night, there were a lot of highlight reel moments, but none more than the fifteen-minute war between Brett Cooper and Alexander Shlemenko. The two men met in a pivotal middleweight qualifying bout for the upcoming middleweight tournament, which is said to kickoff sometime this summer. Both are all too familiar with [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/05/15/bellator-44s-fight-of-the-night-cooper-vs-shlemenko

Todd Duffee  Marvin Eastman  Stav Crazy Bear Economou  Yves Edwards 

Jake Shields' UFC 129 Workout with Tareq Azim - UFC 129

*** Watch Complete 1/2hr HD Episodes on http://www.MMAheat.com ***MMA H.E.A.T went to Xtreme Couture in Toronto to catch up with Jake Shields, 3 days before he challenges Georges St.Pierre for the UFC Welterweight belt. Jake works the pads with his head trainer Tareq Azim: and for the record, rounds 8-10 are seen here.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-ufc-129-workout-with-tareq-azim-video_9a88ed4fb.html

Jon Fitch Kenny Florian Jesse Forbes Xavier Foupa Pokam

UFC 130 Press Conference Video

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Dana White will answer media questions at the UFC 130 press conference.Dana White and the top fighters at UFC 130 will meet the press at the UFC 130 press conference at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Wednesday, and we'll have the live video here at MMAFighting.com.

The UFC 130 press conference is a final opportunity to hear from the fighters prior to Saturday night's event.

Wednesday's press conference starts at 4 p.m. ET and the video is below.




 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/05/25/ufc-130-press-conference-video/

Ryan Gracie Peter Graham Forrest Griffin Tyson Griffin

Grappling with Issues ? 5/25/11

Will Quinton Jackson knock Matt Hamill out this weekend at UFC 130? Would you like to see Nick Diaz as a coach on the Ultimate Fighter? Are New York officials likely to rule in favor of opening the State?s doors to MMA events? Who do you see winning Bellator?s ?Summer Series? tournament? Keyboard warrrrriors?.come out [...]

Source: http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2011/05/25/grappling-with-issues-52511/

Randy The Natural Couture  Dan Cramer Alberto Crane Marcio Pe de Pano Cruz

Bellator ready to crown Season 4 Featherweight finalist, 205-pound champion as all fighters make weight

Bellator Fighting Championships is a day away from crowning their inaugural light heavyweight champion tomorrow night with 205-pound tournament finalists Richard Hale and Christian M’Pumbu set to do battle for the belt at Bellator 45. Also scheduled for the card is a featherweight showdown between Patricio “Pitbull” Freire and Daniel Straus with the winner moving [...]

Source: http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2011/05/20/bellator-45-live-weigh-in-results/

Josh Barnett  David Baron  Phil Baroni Don Barr

'Fight Now TV' Launches Tuesday With High Hopes, Rapid Expansion Goals

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To hear Mike Garrow tell it, starting a new channel is something like giving birth. It takes time, there are brief moments of pain and others of terror, but behind it all is a genuine labor of love. After a two-year process of planning and execution, Garrow's project, a 24-hour combat sports channel called Fight Now TV, will launch on Tuesday morning on Cablevision systems in the New York, tri-state area.

While Fight Now TV is dedicated to more than just mixed martial arts -- boxing, grappling and kickboxing will also be featured, among others sports -- MMA is expected to be a major component of programming. Among the channel's minority owners is UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture.

According to Garrow, the company has signed deals with several promotions in the U.S. and around the world to air events. Fight Now TV will launch two franchises. One, "American Made MMA," will showcase regional promotions like Ring of Fire and Extreme Challenge. Another, "Global Impact MMA," will turn the spotlight on international offerings, like BAMMA and Cage Warriors. It also has obtained rights to historical events, and can offer retrospectives on current stars. For example, they might show current UFC welterweight champ George St-Pierre's last fight before joining the UFC, or Quinton "Rampage" Jackson years before he became a superstar.

The channel also plans to cover the world's top promotions like the UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator and DREAM, in news programs, with original interviews, and taking fans behind the scenes. All in all, it's an extremely ambitious plan for a channel that took just over two years from thought to launch.

"I want people to understand we're trying to put our best foot forward," Garrow told MMA Fighting in a recent interview. "There are going to be growing pains, but we will grow. Look at ESPN. When they first launched, it was with darts and softball and strongman competitions. I'm a fan, too. I want this to be as strong as we can possibly make it. If people are supportive and value it, I look forward to serving those fans for a long time."

For Garrow, it's his second shot at a virtually identical goal. He was the creative vision behind The Fight Network, a Canadian combat sports channel that once hoped to penetrate the U.S. market. But the two sides later split over differences, and the Fight Network's growth eventually stalled. Garrow politely declines to talk about the situation due to ongoing litigation between the sides, but Couture -- who previously worked with him at the Canadian channel -- said The Fight Network's loss is Fight Now TV's gain.

"I think The Fight Network existed because it was Mike Garrow's vision and his dream," Couture said. "And when they did what they did to him, that dream and vision went somewhere else. You're seeing it come back with Fight Now TV. He's the guy who had all the pieces. He still has the original napkin he wrote the idea down on when he first came up with it. He has the passion to connect the dots and make this happen."

While Fight Now TV will initially launch only on Cablevision -- ironic given that New York and Connecticut are two of the few remaining states that have yet to sanction MMA -- Garrow hopes to aggressively expand around the country in rapid fashion, saying they are likely to be announcing other deals quite soon.

"Like anything, we want to get it in as many homes as possible," he said. "We're realistic in our approach. We've got our internal projections. I can't get into specific numbers but I'm pretty confident large pockets of the U.S. will be experiencing Fight Now TV by at least the middle of the summer."

While the channel has no existing business deal with UFC and Strikeforce parent company Zuffa, there is hope that Couture's involvement might help forge a relationship. Couture acknowledges the potential importance of such a development and says simply, "I expect we'll be able to do it."

Garrow, meanwhile, notes that with a 24-hour, 7-day a week existence, the channel will be able to offer major coverage of major events with analysis, features and interviews. MMAJunkie.com's daily radio show will also be simulcast Monday through Friday, giving fans access to many major fighters and insiders. A weekend show, Fight Central hosted by JT McCarthy, will break down major fights and events. Couture will also provide expert analysis.

With 52 weeks a year in a sport that has no off-season, Garrow believes there will always be great fights to be found. Somewhere around the world, someone will be fighting, and Fight Now TV will be on the lookout for it. What SPEED is to auto sports, Fight Now TV wants to be to combat sports.

Right now though, things are still in a controlled state of chaotic anticipation. There is much to be done before the switch is flipped and Fight Now TV goes live at 11 am eastern on Tuesday. Garrow half-jokingly says that he randomly wakes up at 2:30 in the morning on most nights as the channel makes final preparations.

"Overall, our mission is to create an outlet for combative sports, not just MMA," Couture said. "For example, there's a huge grappling movement, not just nationally but internationally with things like Abu Dhabi, NAGA, and U.S. Pankration. And there's always a void for amateur wrestling, no place to find or watch these dual meets. There is a ton of stuff in the combative sports genre, and we can provide that kind of programming to fans. There is a ton of opportunity and need for this kind of channel."

 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/05/23/with-high-hopes-combat-sports-channel-fight-now-tv-launches-t/

Kazuyuki Fujita Masakatsu Funaki Zelg Benkei Galesić Mauro Galvao