Broken hand healed, UFC's Falcao eyes return, still interested in "disrespectful" Sakara

Brazilian slugger Maiquel Falcao has a message for the man he was supposed to fight this past March: Be careful what you wish for.

The one-time UFC vet has fully healed from the lingering hand injury that forced him out of a planned UFC on Versus 3 fight with Alessio Sakara, but "Big Rig" still remembers the Italian striker's pre-fight comments.

Falcao is now training in a gym in his hometown of Pelotas, Brazil, and eyeing a quick return to action. And while Sakara is currently lined up for a UFC 133 bout with Jorge Rivera, Falcao certainly isn't ruling out a future date with "Legionarius."


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mmajunkie/~3/DGOsI1PjTD0/broken-hand-healed-ufcs-falcao-eyes-return-still-interested-in-disrespectful-sakara.mma

Assuerio Silva Paulo Silva Jay Silva Jean Silva

DREAM.17 matchups set for 2011 Japan bantamweight grand-prix opening round

The matchups are set for the 2011 DREAM Japan bantamweight grand prix, which kicks off May 29 at DREAM.17.

The event takes place at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, though North American broadcast plans have not been announced.

The matchups were determined today during a press conference and drawing in Tokyo with the grand-prix competitors.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mmajunkie/~3/6jBQVV0VRU8/dream-17-matchups-set-for-2011-japan-bantamweight-grand-prix-opening-round.mma

Tom Howard Roger Huerta Matt Hughes Matt Hume

Randy Couture Says He'll Go Out on His Own Terms, Retire after UFC 129

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Randy Couture will face Lyoto Machida at UFC 129. We knew this day would come eventually, but Randy Couture has gone on so far past the normal limits of human athletic performance that maybe we started to believe it would never happen. Just two months shy of his 48th birthday, Couture says he sees the end of his mixed martial arts career racing towards him. He will fight Lyoto Machida at UFC 129 on April 30 in front of 55,000 fans, and win, lose or draw, he will call it quits right afterward to focus on acting and other interests.

It's a decision he made once before. He retired in 2006 after losing to Chuck Liddell in the third fight of their trilogy, but with the benefit of hindsight, Couture says now that he knows that was simply a break necessary due to other trying events in his life. But this one, he says will stick.

Next weekend in Toronto will be the last time we see "The Natural" in his natural environment.

"I kind of want to go out on my own terms and decide when enough is enough, and I think that time has come," Couture said during a Tuesday teleconference.

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/04/19/randy-couture-says-hell-go-out-on-his-own-terms-retire-after-u/

Evangelista Santos Rey Phillip Santos Bob Sapp Rumina Sato

BELLATOR 41 RESULTS: Warren takes controversial decision, Freire and Strauss advance to featherweight tourney finals

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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Bellator 41 took place on Saturday night in the Arizona heat outdoors at the Cocopah Resort and Casino in Yuma, Ariz., and in the night's main event, Bellator Featherweight Champion Joe Warren once again needed a comeback victory, though this time he was helped by the judges.

Taking on Marcos Galvao, Warren was most assuredly down two rounds to none heading into the third round, where he took Galvao down and worked effectively enough to take the final frame. But after getting numerous takedowns stuffed and taking a high level of blows from Galvao in their 137 lb. catchweight "superfight," it looked like Warren would lose for the first time in the Bellator cage.

The judges had something else to say about that, handing down scores of 30-27, 29-28, and 29-28, all in favor of the Champion.

The night's other non-title "superfight" saw Bellator Bantamweight Champion Zack Makovsky earn the first knockout win of his career over Chad Robichaux. Both fighters were looking for submissions early and often, but in the third round, Makovsky took Robichaux out with a series of strikes.

The season four Bellator Featherweight Tournament finals are now set, and for the second time Patricio "Pitbull" Freire has advanced to the finals of a Bellator tournament. In a rematch of the season two featherweight tournament semifinals, Freire took on Wilson Reis. After two fairly even rounds, Freire and Reis began trading punches in the third. That was a mistake for Reis, as Freire battered him with pinpoint strikes, finally knocking him out with a vicious combination against the cage.

A third stoppage on the card saw Daniel Strauss lock on a fight-ending guillotine choke on Kenny Foster in the third round of their fight, sending Strauss to the finals to meet Freire. Their season four finals bout will take place later this season.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Bellator/article_9089.shtml

Antoine Jaoude Steve Jennum Ryan Jensen DaMarques Johnson

‘King Mo’ enters Evans-Jones spat by calling one of them a ‘ho’

With the UFC holding the rights to over 85 percent of top 125 fighters in the world, training partners would eventually be faced with stepping into the cage with each other. Just about everyone in the fight world has an opinion on the teammates versus teammate story.

Rashad Evans agreed to do it against newly crowned UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones. That Evans-Jones matchup irks Strikeforce 205-pounder Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal. Lawal is buddies with Evans and feels like the longer tenured member of Greg Jackson's team was boxed into a corner. The problem started with Jones stepping in front of Evans to take the UFC 128 title fight against Mauricio Rua and then softening his stance on not fighting Evans.

""I think it broadsided (Evans), because they both made an agreement (not to fight) and all of a sudden someone reneges," Lawal told Five Knuckles. "I would never fight Daniel (Cormier) definitely, and he would never fight me. Then all of a sudden if he went behind my back and said, 'I'll fight Mo on TV' … that's a ho move and a ho move deserves an ass whipping."

Lawal, like many other fighters, adheres to the philosophy that training partners should never fight.

"I know none of my training partners that are my brothers would ever pull a ho move like that. If I say I ain't going to fight my brother, I ain't going to fight my brother," said Lawal.

MMA isn't that important to his wallet, so he'd find another option if forced to fight a teammate.

"I got brothers who I train with (and) I won't fight my training brothers," Lawal said. "They can fire me and I will go to the WWE, I don't care. Rashad is a brother to me, why fight him if there are other options?"

There's no such brotherhood with King Mo and Quinton Jackson. Lawal would love to fight Jackson and thinks he could handle him easily.

Tip via Cage Potato

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/-King-Mo-enters-Evans-Jones-spat-by-calling-one?urn=mma-wp1154

Diego Sanchez Jorge Santiago Evangelista Santos Rey Phillip Santos

5 Reasons Why Joe Warren Could Beat Marcos Galvao

In order to keep their champions active while everybody else is busy fighting it out for a shot at the championship, Bellator FC routinely puts its title holders into non-title ?super-fights?. Sometimes these fights don?t live up to their billing, like when Nick Thompson fought Bellator Champion Ben Askren despite the fact that Thompson had [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/04/15/5-reasons-why-joe-warren-could-beat-marcos-galvao

Glover Teixeira Tra Telligman Ivan Titenkov Sylvester Terkay

The ‘Pitbulls’ offer another awesome finish at Bellator 41

In a highlight that should bring a smile to some fans' faces, Patricio "Pitbull" Freire scored another devastating finish for the "Pitbull" Brothers. See, the UFC doesn't have every good fighter in the world under contract ... yet.  The smaller of the two dynamos, took out a high level featherweight in Wilson Reis. "Pitbull" dominated most of the fight. Reis, a top level grappler and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt had trouble getting Freire to the ground, and eventually wore down on the feet as "Pitbull" scored the finish at 3:29 of the final round.

Freire (16-1) advances to Bellator Season 4 featherweight final where he'll face Daniel Straus. That won't be an easy fight. Straus is a monster at 145 pounds and very good grappler. He dominated Kenny Foster, finishing with a third round guillotine choke in the other semifinal on Saturday. The win was particularly impressive for the massive Straus since the fight began with Arizona afternoon temperatures around 99 degrees.

Patricio's older brother Patricky, 25, reached the Bellator Season 4 lightweight final where he'll face Lloyd Woodard.

Joe Warren was successful in a non-title fight, but barely against Marcus Galvao. Warren, a bantamweight by trade, holds the Bellator featherweight title as well. By the looks of Straus and the Patricio "Pitbull," he'll be hard pressed to exit 2011 with that Bellator 145-pound strap. Warren and "Pitbull" met in the Season 3 final, where the American posted an amazing comeback victory after getting torn up in the first round. It looks like "Pitbull" has shored up any weakness that he had with his takedown defense.

The "Pitbulls" are on the verge of stardom. The MMA blogger for the Daily Mirror in the U.K. says they have a chance to be the next Nogueira brothers.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/The-Pitbulls-offer-another-awesome-finish-at-B?urn=mma-wp1295

Chris Dolman Edson Drago  Tomasz Drwal Joe Hybrid Duarte