The Truth About Fighting Your Friends

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If UFC president Dana White has said it once, he's said it a thousand times: MMA is not a team sport.

It's a sport that's all about individual success and failure. It's about two men locked in a violent struggle for money and status, and there's not enough of either to go around.

This, of course, is the inexorable logic of the fight promoter, who stands to profit handsomely if he can convince friends, teammates, and training partners to forego all other loyalties and duke it out in the cage. But then, the promoter doesn't have to actually get in there and knock his best friend unconscious.

As UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub put it, "This isn't basketball. It's not like Magic [Johnson] and [Larry] Bird playing each other and being all buddy-buddy. Somebody's getting fu**ed up."

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/03/31/the-truth-about-fighting-your-friends/

Josh Koscheck Pascal Krauss Keigo Kunihara Mike Kyle

Michael Bisping lashes out at Nate Marquardt, still wants Chael Sonnen bout

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

BispingMichael_150CG_50.jpg

Following Michael Bisping's victory over Jorge Rivera at UFC 127 in Australia, complete with an illegal knee and him spitting at Rivera's corner due to the pre-fight trash talk from Rivera and camp, Bisping found himself with no dearth of fighters looking to get a shot at him.

At the top of that list in the middleweight division where Chael Sonnen and Nate Marquardt, two fighters who have each had their shot at the UFC Middleweight Championship in their careers. However, while Bisping is really looking forward to a confrontation with Sonnen, he had some choice words in response to Marquardt calling him a "punk" and saying he wanted to "punch him in the mouth and shut him up."

"That guy, he's quite a hypocrite," Bisping said in an interview with Ariel Helwani at MMAFighting.com. "He's a steroid cheat, let's not forget that. He's had points taken away for illegally kneeing people himself, and then he goes out talking about me as if I'm Satan or something. The guy's an absolute hypocrite."

"He s***s the bed every time he's in a main event. He's had three No. 1 contender fights and a title shot and lost them all. I want to fight the top guys and I think Chael Sonnen for me is the biggest possible name I could get, and that's what I'm hoping for. Nate Marquardt doesn't excite me."

As far as Sonnen is concerned, Bisping echoed comments he made last week to ESPN UK's UFC podcast that he finds Sonnen's talk hysterical and wouldn't let it get to him like Rivera's did.

"I want to fight Chael Sonnen because No. 1, he's an amazing fighter," Bisping said. "When he fought last, he looked fantastic, and I want to challenge myself. He's the No. 2 ranked middleweight in the world. Obviously I can't fight No. 1 because he's got a title shot, so I want to fight the No. 2 guy."

"The things that Chael Sonnen comes out with, they're so outlandish that you can't help but laugh. Listen, I think he's brilliant. I've watched the stuff from his last fight. I was in stitches. I was laughing my ass off. Even comments he said about me after my last fight, I just had to laugh at that. You can't not laugh. Of course he's going to get in my head at the time, but hopefully I've learned from recent experiences. It'll make for a great fight i'm sure."

Penick's Analysis: Bisping feels he's surpassed Marquardt in the division and doesn't feel that fight does anything for him, so we're not likely to see the UFC even attempt to put that together, but again a fight with Sonnen seems to be a very likely possibility with both showing interest in it. As far as his comments on Marquardt, he's got a point about getting docked for illegal blows in fights, but Marquardt was also going off more about the spitting incident than the knee. Still, Bisping is ready to take on a bump in competition with the latest win, and for the UFC if he can get past Sonnen it would possibly put them in a position to give Bisping a title shot, and possibly in the U.K.

[Michael Bisping art by Cory Gould (C) MMATorch.com]

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_8907.shtml

Noboru Asahi Marcus Aurelio  Mikhail Avetisyan Luiz Azeredo 

NCAA wrestling’s best: Five who should transition to MMA

You don't have to be a hardcore fan to know that collegiate wrestlers fare well in MMA. Just looking at fighters from cards this month, both Urijah Faber and Phil Davis made their names at the NCAA Division I level before moving on to MMA.

This past weekend, the NCAA Division I championships went down in Philadelphia, with Penn State taking the team championship, and the unbelievable Anthony Robles winning outstanding wrestler. Which wrestlers would make a good transition into the cage?

Jordan Burroughs: He won the national championship for Nebraska at 165 pounds, dominating every step of the way. No one had an answer to his double-leg takedown, and he already has the foot and head movement that will help him transition to MMA. He's already caught the eye of fighters, as Strikeforce heavyweight and two-time Olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier called dibs for American Kickboxing Academy to train Burroughs. Seeing the job they did with Cain Velasquez, Josh Koscheck and Cormier, it would be a good home for Burroughs.

 

Bubba Jenkins: Arizona State's Jenkins had a rough road to the top. He transferred from 2011 champ Penn State to ASU, where he blossomed. He pinned PSU's David Taylor -- the wrestler who took his spot at Penn St. -- in the finals. After that, he said in a press conference that he can't wait to fight. "MMA is next. I'm excited about it. I got fast hands, fast feet. The camera's going to love me, I hope. I got a good smile for it. "

Not only does he already "get" selling a fight, he even gets merchandising. ASU fans wore shirts around Philly all weekend reading, "Free Bubba." Sponsors, MMA gyms and promotions should line up to sign Bubba.

Jordan Oliver: As the 133-pound national champion for MMA factory Oklahoma State, Oliver would find no shortage of mentors in the sport. He has a scrappy, fast style that would easily transition to MMA, but that will have to wait. Oliver is only a sophomore, and also reportedly has plans to pursue Olympic gold when his collegiate career is finished.

Ed Ruth: The Nittany Lion fell short of an individual title because of an injury that took him out of a quarterfinal match, but he made his mark on the 174 division. Ruth's technical abilities combined with his long, long arms could give him quite an advantage as a fighter. He just finished his freshman year, so MMA fans will have to wait a while before we know if Ruth wants to fight.

Zach Rey: A national champion at heavyweight for Lehigh, Rey is insanely strong. Like, throwing-around-285-pound-men-like-they-were-rag-dolls strong. He could improve his footwork, but that makes him no different than any other heavyweight wrestler transitioning to MMA. He also has another year of eligibility, so any plans for MMA have to wait.

Did you watch the championships? Tell us who you'd like to see fight in the comments below or on Facebook.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/NCAA-wrestling-s-best-Five-who-should-transitio?urn=mma-wp476

John Lewis Jérôme Le Banner Jess Liaudin Chuck The Iceman Liddell

Dana White Supports Overtime to Take Draws Out of the UFC

by Michael David SmithDana WhiteThe UFC has already had two pay-per-view main events end in draws this year, with neither fighter getting his hand raised in the Frankie Edgar vs Gray Maynard fight at UFC 125, or the B.J. Penn vs. Jon Fitch fight at UFC 127.

UFC President Dana White wasn't satisfied with those decisions, and he'd like to do something about it: Add overtime to UFC fights.

Talking to Stephan Bonnar on The Ultimate Fighter Aftermath, White was asked whether he would favor an overtime round for fights that end in draws, just as the fights on The Ultimate Fighter have. White said he thinks that's a good idea.

 

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Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/03/31/dana-white-supports-overtime-to-take-draws-out-of-the-ufc/

Kit Cope  Wesley Cabbage Correira  Patrick The Predator Côté  Randy The Natural Couture 

MMAjunkie.com's Gorgeous Garcia on "The Fight Show" with Mauro Ranallo today

MMAjunkie.com Radio host "Gorgeous" George Garcia is a guest on today's edition of "The Fight Show with Mauro Ranallo."

Garcia joins Ranallo to discuss the latest MMA happenings, including this past weekend's events and the busy schedule still to come.

Catch the segment at 2:15 p.m. ET (11:15 a.m. PT) on The Score, which is available on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 98 or online at Radio.TheScore.com.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mmajunkie/~3/k3rA5LPf0lo/mmajunkie-coms-gorgeous-garcia-on-the-fight-show-with-mauro-ranallo-today-20110330.mma

Jaime Jara Keith Jardine Antoine Jaoude Steve Jennum

The Truth About Fighting Your Friends

Filed under:

If UFC president Dana White has said it once, he's said it a thousand times: MMA is not a team sport.

It's a sport that's all about individual success and failure. It's about two men locked in a violent struggle for money and status, and there's not enough of either to go around.

This, of course, is the inexorable logic of the fight promoter, who stands to profit handsomely if he can convince friends, teammates, and training partners to forego all other loyalties and duke it out in the cage. But then, the promoter doesn't have to actually get in there and knock his best friend unconscious.

As UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub put it, "This isn't basketball. It's not like Magic [Johnson] and [Larry] Bird playing each other and being all buddy-buddy. Somebody's getting fu**ed up."

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/03/31/the-truth-about-fighting-your-friends/

Shane Carwin Brock Lesnar Frank Shamrock Tito Ortiz

Dan Hardy & Chris Lytle Just Want To ?Stand and Bang?

As you would expect, being trapped underneath Anthony Johnson for three straight rounds last Saturday night left a bad taste in Dan Hardy’s mouth. He expected a slugfest and got a wrestling match. So what is a slugger like Hardy to do when he loses his last two out of three because he can’t stuff [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mmaconvert/~3/dxDqL7zbd0g/

Joe Son Chael Sonnen Krzysztof Soszynski George Sotiropoulos