Page 885 - Top MMA News and Mixed Martial Arts Headlines

UFC President Dana White is at it again. This time, he's taking offense to criticism by former UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn that the UFC forced him to fabricate the slightest bit of animosity toward his UFC 137 opponent, Nick Diaz, during a segment for the UFC Countdown show. Penn posted a video on Tuesday on his website explaining to viewers that he had no ill will toward Diaz. Dana White responded by posting a "raw & uncut" video of the interview, suggesting that nobody forced Penn to say what he said during the interview. The interview is far from raw as White suggests, so there is still doubt whether White is telling the truth. What is apparent is that Penn was launching a preemptive strike against the idea that he had any animosity toward Diaz. Both men have trained together in the past, and Diaz has stated that there is a mutual respect between the two veteran fighters. Even if it is apparent that Penn wasn't forced to disrespect Diaz, I believe he thought there was enough of chance of Diaz taking it badly that he wanted to pass the blame somewhere else.

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Brazil may not have a standardized athletic commission overseeing MMA, but the UFC did their own drug testing for UFC 134, which took place in August. According to a report by UFC vice president of regulatory affairs Marc Ratner, in an email to MMAWeekly.com, it was confirmed that six fighters were tested for the show, and all the athletes’ tests came back negative. Main event fighters Anderson Silva and Yushin Okami along with four other random tests administered by UFC officials all came back negative.

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Throughout his career, Diego Sanchez has been tested in many facets of mixed martial arts. He’s been in three weight classes, fought for a title and even dealt with a lot of out-of-cage drama that might send the common man spinning out of control, never to return. After getting his life together and returning the familiar surroundings of Jackson’s MMA in New Mexico, Sanchez feels he’s ready to test himself in a challenge that MMA and the UFC is yet to give him. Diego Sanchez wants to be a coach on The Ultimate Fighter. In speaking with MMAWeekly Radio Weekend Edition recently, Sanchez – who won the first season of the famed reality show as a middleweight, alongside light heavyweight winner Forrest Griffin – proclaimed he is a perfect candidate to coach TUF in an upcoming season. With the show finding a new home on the Fox network, Sanchez can gain a ton of exposure to a wide audience, and feels he’s deserving of such a honor.

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With 11 first-round submission victories in 12 career wins, Cody McKenzie – and his opponents – never really knew where his conditioning stood. Over the years, his variations of the guillotine choke have wreaked havoc on them. But in his two career losses (one official and one in an exhibition match), including his most recent to Yves Edwards, McKenzie found himself struggling to keep up with the pace. However, with "The Ultimate Fighter 12" alum knowing he had a hole in his game that needed filled, McKenzie (12-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) made the adjustments needed to ensure that he's performing at full speed against Vagner Rocha (6-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) at Saturday's UFC Fight Night 25 event. "I've never had good wind," McKenzie recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). "Everybody who's watched me fight knows that. I've finished all my fights in the first (round), and when it's gone to the second, I got finished. The two times I've ever been beaten, I gassed (in) both of them. So, I knew that my cardio needed readjusting, so I have worked a lot more on my cardio for this fight. "But yeah, I've never had the best wind, but definitely from now on out you won't see me gassing."

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At just 22 years old, Team Roufusport featherweight Erik Koch (12-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) is sporting a brand new tan (shout out to Milwaukee's Sun Seekers, says the formerly pasty contender) and an abundance of confidence. After closing out a three-fight WEC run with a "Knockout of the Night" win, Koch scored a repeat performance in his octagon debut, crushing Raphael Assuncao at UFC 128. Now Koch faces "The Ultimate Fighter 12" winner Jonathan Brookins (12-3 MMA, 1-0 UFC) at this weekend's UFC Fight Night 25 event, and "New Breed" thinks another knockout win should earn him a shot at the UFC's featherweight title. "I think if I can do what I want I can get another knockout or 'Knockout of the Night' or fast in the first round, I think I deserve one right away," Koch said. "That's three (knockouts) in a row. That would be four (wins) in a row in the first round. It's a hell of a streak. "I don't know anybody else at 145 pounds with a streak like that other than Chad (Mendes), and I know he deserves it. We'll see how that plays out."

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A rumored bout between Fedor Emelianenko (31-4) and Jeff Monson (42-12) is now slated for a Nov. 20 M-1 Global event in Russia. The fight, which previously was expected to take place Nov. 12, instead takes place eight days later at Olympic Stadium in Moscow. M-1 officials today announced the plans. The Nov. 20 date allows M-1 Global to avoid going head to head with the UFC's debut event on FOX, as well as a boxing blockbuster between Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao, which are both scheduled for Nov. 12.

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Wrestling Observer writer Dave Meltzer had some interesting insight into the whole Nick Diaz UFC 137 saga that has dragged on over the past week. Specifically, Meltzer talked about how much money Diaz lost out on when he was removed from the main event fight with Georges St. Pierre.

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UFC light heavyweight Fabio Maldonado is a guy that a lot of fans are interested in watching. Unfortunately, they won't be watching him on October 1st. MMA Weekly brings the news: Fabio Maldonado’s opportunity to get his UFC career back on track has been sidelined. UFC officials on Wednesday announced that Maldonado had to pull out of his scheduled UFC on Versus 6 bout with Aaron Rosa due to injury.

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Amazon Forest Combat Amadeau Teixeira Gymanasium Manaus, Brazil Preliminary Bouts Rivaldo Junior defeats Andre Leocadio by split decision. Dileno Lopes defeats Danny Martinez by submission (guillotine) at 0:57 of 1st round. Alexandre Almeida defeats Daniel Aguiar by unanimous decision. George Clay defeats Anthony Birchak by submission (rear-naked choke) at 1:29 of 1st round. Daniel Acacio defeats Sergio Junior by KO at 2:50 of 1st round. Feature Bouts Jordan Smith defeats Karo Parisyan via split decision. Antonio Braga Neto defeats Maiquel Falcao via submission (kimura) at 4:26 of 2nd round. Ronys Torres defeats Drew Fickett via submission (strikes) at 0:47 seconds of 1st round. Paulo Filho & Satoshi Ishii fight to a draw Masakatsu Ueda defeats Royler Gracie via unanimous decision

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Heavyweight fighter Mike Whitehead will face probation after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors accusing him of trying to have sex with a woman who was asleep in his home. Whitehead appeared in Las Vegas' Clark County District Court this week to officially plead guilty to a charge of attempted sexual assault, the Las Vegas Sun reports. Whitehead entered an Alford plea, under which a defendant maintains innocence, but concedes that prosecutors probably can get a conviction. He will be officially sentenced in January. Under his plea bargain, prosecutors will recommend probation for Whitehead, who would be required to register as a sex offender...

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Maximo Blanco's Strikeforce stint will be a short one. Following a loss to former welterweight Pat Healy at this past weekend's Strikeforce event, Blanco (8-3-1) is dropping from lightweight to featherweight and joining the UFC. The fighter's management team at Sucker Punch Entertainment tweeted the news on Tuesday. "[Blanco] will be back strong, very soon, this time at 145 pounds in the UFC," the message read. UFC officials have not formally announced the move.

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Quick Quotes from the Conference Call w/ Mayhem & Bisping Opening remarks: UFC confirms TUF 14 will air on FX in the UK including the finale. According to the UFC, this is the first time UFC has aired on free TV in the UK. Jason Miller: - I didn't like him at first, then I liked him. Now I'm back to hating him again. - I definitely got under his skin...apart from the unbelievable fights...our personality clash put on a damn good show... - I think you're way worse an idiot than I am... - My first priority was to give full attention to coaching these guys and second to make entertaining television... - Bisping fully proved himself to be a prick by week 2 - It wasn't the normal crop of TUF crowd who were 2-0...some of these guys had 30 fighters...we didn't have one lackluster fight the entire season... - There were some upsets that some of the media have heard of, but guess what? They're not coming into the house. - It comes down to what's best for my career, me vs. Bisping is going to be way better for the UFC. This is going to be huge for the TUF franchise. Just looking as a TV viewer, I'm totally enthralled with it. - They just stuck the camera on us and we made good TV. I contributed to Lesnar's season of TUF not having any ratings, I didn't watch. - I put 100% of my effort into this job. - The amount of time stuck with a camera in your face and a microphone up your ass...I was used to television being a more controlled thing. - A lot of his coaching staff are guys I used to train with and had to move on because they couldn't give me what I needed. Michael Bisping: - Jason, you have 15 different personalities. You either love or hate him. I definitely hate him...December 3rd I'm going to kick his ass, so it's all good. - This season is all real fighters. They weren't there for air time...it was a good season, my team did a good job and I feel I represented myself pretty well. - After a day the team gels, they open up to one another...many fighters told me how shocked they were that I did care about the team...it's not about me or Jason...it's about giving these guys a shot at the big time... - Miller's annoying for a completely different reason (than Jorge Rivera)...it wasn't just Rivera, it was him and his entire team...they crossed the line talking to family...Jason's not like that, he's just idiotic...his mouth is definitely bigger than his brain... - Nice to see you've warmed up on your sister, Jason. - I always give people the benefit of the doubt...we have a few mutual friends...the first couple of days before shooting starts and the more time I spent around him the more he irritated me...you'll see why he isn't on my Christmas card list.. - Coaching lighter weight guys is a double edged sword...the downside is when I'm coaching you saw in season 9 I'm on the mat, but with the size difference this time I couldn't do that...had to do a lot of coaching from the sidelines... - You didn't have to show these fighters too many things...these were complete fighters, they just needed guidance and structure. - There was never any hesitation in accepting the role as coach...in my opinion, that role is very prestigious...the reality is there is a downside: it means 10 months out of the game, it means taking a fight against Jason Miller. - Anderson Silva hasn't wiped out the middleweight division yet; I match up well with him and better than some of these other fighters have. - This season I was myself, I didn't pull any punches, I didn't go on a PR campaign to get more fans. - Jason's already beaten mentally. It'll be my job to show up to the fight and collect a paycheck. - As of right now I'm living in California. The plan for the training camp is to spend a month in California and then somewhere else yet to be determined...I'm still very much part of the Wolfslair. wanted to edit out some of the quotes, but i liked em all. sorry if it's too long

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Sidelined for a year due to injuries, UFC welterweight Brian Foster has received permission to fight outside the organization and now meets Jack Mason in a 181-pound catchweight bout at Cage Warriors 44. Cage Warriors executive Graham Boylan today confirmed the plans with MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). The event takes place Oct. 1 at HMV Forum in London and streams online in North America. Foster (15-5) vs. Mason (17-8) takes the co-headlining slot.

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Bellator Fighting Championships continues to scoop up international prospects, and middleweight Frenchman Norman Paraisy is the promotion's latest acquisition. MMAjunkie.com has learned from sources close to the fighter that Paraisy has verbally agreed to compete for Bellator later this year. Paraisy's lone official career loss actually came under the Bellator banner in an April 2009 bout with Dave Menne. ]LINK[/L] P.S This was the french guy who was banging on about how the french aren't quitters etc only to quit in the break of the first round...

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It was one of the most shocking stories in mixed martial arts history. Former Strikeforce champion Nick Diaz (25-7 MMA, 6-4 UFC), handed the biggest opportunity of his career, no-showed a pair of pre-event press conferences and was pulled from a UFC 137 fight with UFC title-holder Georges St-Pierre (22-2 MMA, 16-2 UFC). The world struggled to make sense of the situation, and honestly, so has Diaz, himself. The fiery Californian admits he dropped the ball, but he's shocked St-Pierre went along for the ride. And that supposed disdain for the press? Garbage, says Diaz. Media members should feel free to stop by his gym anytime. "I'm not trying to make all these little excuses," Diaz today told MMAjunkie.com. "If I'd have known the fight was going to be off, I would have [expletive] gone to the press conference, or I would have told somebody, 'Hey, if I don't make it to this stupid [expletive], I'm not fighting.' I think that people would have gotten me there. I think people would have come and gave two [expletive] and gotten me to that press conference."

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i'll skip to the good stuff.... " But then last week I got word Matt Hughes, who has avoided me for years, needed an opponent for UFC 135 in Denver on Sept. 24. I've called out Hughes for so long but he's always avoided me. When he was on top and one of the top in the division, he used his position to avoid fighting me and all the AKA guys. But when Diego Sanchez pulled out hurt with three weeks to go, I knew the UFC would have no choice but to try to talk Hughes into fighting me. Like I knew he would, he tried to suggest fighting Jon Fitch instead, knowing full well Fitch is still recovering from shoulder surgery. I tweeted that I'd accepted the fight and was ready, just to put pressure on Hughes to quit bitching and take the fight. I wanted to make it so that if he did turn the fight down, all the fans would know that he bitched out. He had nowhere else to go and I've finally got my fight with Matt Hughes."

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Two competitors scheduled for the card of Strikeforce Challengers 19 have suffered undisclosed injures in training camp, according to promotion officials. Light heavyweight headliner Virgil Zwicker (10-2) has been scratched from an anticipated clash with Lorenz Larkin (11-0), and welterweight prospect Jerron Peoples (4-1) has been removed from an undercard tilt against Joe Ray (5-2). Strikeforce announced the news on late Tuesday afternoon with this tweet. "Injury report! 9/23 headliner Virgil Zwicker injured, out of fight vs Larkin; Jerron Peoples hurt; out of fight vs Ray; replacements TBD" No replacement opponents have been announced by the promotion at this time.

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Four new fights have been added to this month's Bellator 51 preliminary card. The total now sits at six fights that will stream live on Spike.com. Bellator 51 takes place Sept. 24 at Canton Memorial Civic Center in Canton, Ohio. The MTV2-televised main card, which also airs in high-definition on EPIX, features the opening round of Bellator's season-five bantamweight tournament. Ohio's biggest MMA promotion, the NAAFS, is co-promoting the night's preliminary card. The latest Bellator 51 card now includes: MAIN CARD (MTV2) • Alexis Vila vs. Joe Warren (bantamweight-tourney opening round) •Eduardo Dantas vs. Wilson Reis (bantamweight-tourney opening round) •Luiz Nogueira vs. Ed West (bantamweight-tourney opening round) •Chase Beebe vs. Marcos Galvao (bantamweight-tourney opening round) PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike.com) •Jessica Eye vs. Casey Noland •Frank Caraballo vs. Dustin Kempf •John Hawk vs. Allan Weickert •Dane Bonnigson vs. Dan Spohn •Farkhad Sharipov vs. TBA •Joey Holt vs. Clint Musser

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As it turns out, "The Thrashing Machine" might of just needed a little oil change. Eight months after Tim Hague (12-5) was released from the UFC for a second time, the Canadian heavyweight says he's undergone a total overhaul and is looking to make his way back into the octagon. Personal problems have been dealt with and training reinvigorated. Hague embarks on a journey at Friday night's Aggression MMA VIII event that he says should take five fights and less than a year to earn his spot back in the world's biggest MMA promotion.

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Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva had a career high moment in February when he defeated Fedor Emelianenko in the quarterfinals of the Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix. But in his semifinals bout, he was on the wrong end of a brutal beating at the hands of Daniel Cormier. Silva talked to Tatame.com after the event about what went wrong, and gave his prediction for who will win the Grand Prix finals bout between Cormier and Josh Barnett: "I had a game plan, but I could never imagine he'd punch me like that. I wasn't underestimating him, but after he punched me I couldn't see a thing, I wasn't controlling my body anymore. I was doing things automatically, I could only see shadows. When I stood up I was dizzy. I was really dizzy after that jab, but I went for it. If I'm losing, at least I'll lose while fighting. It happened, he deserve the credits. I was well prepared, but he punched me. We didn't even really fought... I guess Josh [Barnett] will win [the finals]. If he doesn't make the same mistakes I did, of really going for it. That's the only chance Cormier got, his punch. He isn't any good on the ground to fight Josh there. He knows Wrestling, but… I guess Josh Barnett will win, he's more complete."

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