UFC champ Cain Velasquez fighting boredom following shoulder surgery

CONCORD, Calif. - It's black, neoprene, and has a bright red ball attached to it by Velcro.

This is the sling that hosts Cain Velasquez's right forearm for the immediate future.

Back in October, the American Kickboxing Academy fighter beat Brock Lesnar for the UFC heavyweight title, but Velasquez's next opponent could be his toughest yet: boredom.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mmajunkie/~3/CLuASgtF8n0/ufc-champ-cain-velasquez-fighting-boredom-following-shoulder-surgery.mma

Jon Jones Nathan Jones  Kevin Jordan Jeff Joslin

BELLATOR NEWS: Season two semifinalist Georgi Karakhanyan added to fourth season featherweight tournament

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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The next participant for Bellator's season four featherweight tournament is set, as the organization on Thursday announced the addition of Georgi Karakhanyan to the field.

The fourth confirmed fighter for the eight man tournament is no stranger to Bellator's tournament system, having competed in the season two field. Karakhanyan picked up a highly impressive knockout win over Bao Quatch in the quarterfinals of that tournament before losing a decision to eventual tournament winner, and current Bellator Featherweight Champion, Joe Warren.

"Georgi's a dangerous fighter," said Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney. "His knockout of Quach was devastating and he put up a great fight against the World?s #2 Featherweight Joe Warren. Georgi will definitely be in the hunt for this tournament championship."

The 14-2-1 Karakhanyan bounced back from the loss to Warren - which snapped a nine fight win streak - in Bellator's third season with a win over Anthony Leone. Now, the 25-year-old will attempt to get through the tournament field again, this time to earn a rematch with Warren.

"I need to take this tournament one fight at a time. I'm trying not to focus on Joe Warren right now. Whoever they put in front of me, that's who I'm going to focus in on," said Karakhanyan. "I never underestimate anyone. There are going to be some really dangerous fighters in this tournament so I'm just going to take things one fight at a time, focus on that person, and then go from there."

?I hate losing. Losing to Joe Warren was a horrible feeling. To be able to come back from that and beat three guys on my way to getting revenge against him would be an amazing feeling. That's my main goal right now."

Karakhanyan joins Eric Larkin, Kenny Foster, and Zac George as confirmed participants in the new season's 145 lb. tournament, which kicks off in March on MTV2.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Bellator/article_8286.shtml

Jason Lambert Jose Landi Jons Icho Larenas Bobby Lashley

Dana White Discusses UFC 126, Strikeforce GP and Japanese MMA

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LAS VEGAS -- MMA Fighting spoke to Dana White at Wednesday's UFC 126 press conference about the importance of Silva vs. Belfort, his thoughts on the upcoming Strikeforce heavyweight tournament, the state of Japanese MMA and MMA in New York. and whether he is interested in talking once again with HBO.

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/02/02/dana-white-discusses-ufc-126-strikeforce-gp-and-japanese-mma/

Kevin Randleman Randy Couture Josh Barnett Ricco Rodriguez

Roger Gracie could be facing Jeff Monson next in Strikeforce

After his most recent victory in the Strikeforce banner, many are already clamoring for the return of Roger Gracie, who impressed a lot of people with his most recent win over talented veteran Trevor Prangley last Saturday. The two fighters met at the HP Pavillion in San Jose, California for “Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg” in [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/02/01/roger-gracie-could-be-facing-jeff-monson-next-in-strikeforce

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

UFC NEWS: Anthony Pettis vs. Clay Guida to headline The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale on Spike in June

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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Anthony Pettis will indeed headline his first ever UFC event, and though it won't be for the title shot he was initially expecting to get, it will still introduce him to a larger audience than he was exposed to on Versus.

According to a report from MMAJunkie.com, Pettis' planned bout with Clay Guida will headline The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale on June 4 in Las Vegas, live on Spike TV.

Pettis, entering the UFC as the final WEC Lightweight Champion after a riveting fight with Ben Henderson in December, was initially slated to face the winner of the Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard bout from UFC 125. With that fight ending in a draw, the UFC decided to book a rematch, leading Pettis to take a different fight. Pettis ended his time in the WEC with four straight wins, all in 2010, and enters the UFC with a record of 13-1 overall.

Guida most recently moved his winning streak to three with a second round submission victory over Takanori Gomi at UFC 125. All three of his wins in that span have come by submission. The energetic Guida holds a record of 8-5 in the Octagon.

The Ultimate Fighter 13 will be coached by heavyweights Brock Lesnar and Junior Dos Santos, and will feature 28 welterweight fighters. The season begins filming next week, and debuts on Spike on March 30.

Link to Original Source Article

Penick's Analysis: This is a perfect spot for this fight. Coming off the heels of what should be one of the highest rated seasons of TUF ever, the UFC can introduce Pettis on free TV to a large audience that may not have seen him fight before. They can put the "Showtime kick" on an endless loop on Spike for a week heading into the fight, and if Pettis can defeat Guida he'll skyrocket his popularity even further. A win over Guida in impressive fashion on this card will make him an even easier sell as a title challenger for the UFC.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_8227.shtml

Terrance Aflague Yoshihiro Akiyama  Gilbert Aldana  José Aldo 

Herschel could put aside MMA for a return to the NFL

Don't tell Herschel Walker he's being ridiculous. The former NFL running back probably won't be swayed. He put together a borderline Hall of Fame career in the NFL without lifting a weight. Then he turned to an Olympic quest at age 29 and made a U.S. two-man bobsled team in the 1992 Olympics. His latest endeavor is a career in mixed martial arts. Now in typical Walker fashion, he said he's not done. His next dream is to return to the NFL when he's 50.

"I tell people I may even try out for football again and show people I can do that. I'd be the George Foreman of football and come back and do that one more time," Walker, 48, said on a conference call.

As he preps for his second career pro MMA fight, this weekend in San Jose against Scott Carson, Walker still believes he could clash helmets with athletes who may be 25 years younger than him. 

"There is a 100 percent guarantee that today I could help a football team out," said Walker.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal pointed out that Walker claims he can still run with the best athletes in the world:

Walker said he was clocked at a mind-boggling 4.38 in the 40-yard dash after his MMA debut last year and that his time right now would certainly be sub-4.5.

The 1982 Heisman Trophy winner said it's just a matter of fitting a football comeback into his schedule.

"If I can fit it in my schedule, yes I would do it," he said. "I 100 percent guarantee today I could help a football team out."

Pretty strange, right? It's par for the course with Walker, who has a ripped body in his late 40s in spite of a diet that would make most doctors cringe.

"Most every nutritionist in the world has told me 'You can't do that. You can't do that.' And my thing is 'Guys, I've been doing this for over 20-something years," Walker said. "It's not something that I just started doing because I've was turning into an MMA fighter. I was doing it when I was playing football. And it works for me. I'm not going to say it's going to work for everyone else."

Walker said his NFL teams of choice would be the Minnesota Vikings or Atlanta Falcons. Since Walker's not dispensing advice to others, maybe we should all stop telling the legend to cross another sports hurdle in the future. 

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Herschel-could-put-aside-MMA-for-a-return-to-the?urn=mma-312349

Edwin Dewees  Nick Diaz  Tadhg Steamfist Dixon Joe Doerksen 

Once a 'Joe' facing Justin Gatlin and Kevin Greene, Charlie Brenneman now a 'pro'

Charlie "The Spaniard" Brenneman hasn't broken into the mainstream just yet when it comes to his mixed martial arts career. The lightweight will try to improve on that image tomorrow night on the Fight for the Troops 2 card on Spike.

In an odd twist, he's actually had more success on Spike television than anyone else on this deep Ultimate Fight Night 23 card.

Brenneman was once a competitor on Spike's "Pros vs. Joes" back in 2006.

The former college wrestler competed against the likes of Darren Daulton, Herschel Walker, Kevin Greene, Dominique Wilkens and Olympic sprinter Justin Gatlin. Episode 9 of Season 1 was titled, "Could you outrun the fastest man alive?"

"He probably beat me by 100 meters in the 200-meter dash," Brenneman told the Canadian Press.

Brenneman bounced back in the football competition against Greene. That was good enough to help him win the episode. He went onto the finale with his brother Ben and won the Season 1 title. He won $20,000 and a Dodge Caliber. It turns out the car was more valuable than the cash.

With Brenneman relocating two years ago from his Pennsylvania home in Hollidaysburg to a spot in East Hanover, N.J., the car came in handy for driving all over northern New Jersey. He trains in Whippany with fellow UFC fighters, Jim and Dan Miller. He also works with Ricardo Almeida to south in Hamilton and occasionally trains at Renzo Gracie's gym in New York City. Throw in the commute back to East Stroudsburg, Pa. where he helps coach the East Stroudsburg University wrestling team and that's a lot of driving.

Brenneman is 1-1 in the UFC. He debuted with a win over Jason High and lost via second round TKO against Johny Hendricks at UFC 117. Tomorrow at UFN 23, he gets to show his progress against a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt in Amilcar Alves, who fightsout of Jose Aldo's camp.

If you're wondering about the nickname. Brenneman did his undergrad work at Lock Haven and got his masters from East Stroudsburg. He went on to teach high school Spanish from 2004-2007.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Once-a-Joe-facing-Justin-Gatlin-and-Kevin-Gree?urn=mma-310814

Gleison Tibau Anthony Torres Miguel Torres Roberto Traven

Diaz just wants big fights, not interested in 'maturing'

Nick Diaz put a licking on brawler Evangelista Santos, but the prefight wasn't engulfed by the champ's trademark trash talk. Diaz is genuine. Just because he rips most  opponents doesn't mean that it's some sort of ploy to fire himself up or sell the fight. So when he was asked if not ripping "Cyborg" was a byproduct of maturing, Diaz answered with his typical brutal honesty.

"No, not at all," Diaz said (1:22 mark). "[In the past] I had to [expletive] with people. We had something between us."

Diaz said he respected Cyborg as well as past opponents like Robbie Lawler. That wasn't the case with guys like KJ Noons, Scott Smith and Frank Shamrock.  

"That was that and now it's over with. Sometimes you get into some conflict and that's happened to me more than once, so now everyone feels as if I 've gone and matured or grown up or somethin, but that's just the way fighting is," Diaz said. "If you're going to make it personal, then it's really going to be a personal thing. It's already personal. The guy who wins is going to go on and make a lot more money."

Make no mistake about it, the "old" Diaz will return if Showtime/Strikeforce decides to make a fight against Paul Daley. Daley likes to fan the flames and already has his own bad guy tag after his exile from the UFC for sucker punching Josh Koscheck following their fight at UFC 113.

Diaz sounds confident that he'll be fine against the British slugger.

"I see myself putting punches on him," Diaz said. "Maybe him trying to take me down too and getting caught in a choke. He could run from me and I could run him down. I'll run him down and take him down and beat him on the ground. I could see that fight going a lot of different ways."

Diaz knows Daley's reputation as a one-dimensional fighter.

"I'm not really impressed with Paul Daley as a mixed martial artist," Diaz said. "He's got great standup and he's got good knockout power. I'm sure he knows what's going to happen if he steps in there and fights me."

He re-stated that he'll fight Jason Miller, but he needs to get paid a little extra if he's going to meet the 185 pounder at middleweight.

"This is hard stuff. I train hard everyday. I work more than eight hours days every day," Diaz said. "And they're harder than your eight-hour days holding a camera. It's different. You can't do this, what I do. I think that money talks."

There you have it. Diaz drops a little trash on all us media tough guys. He's earned the right to say whatever he wants. He keeps backing it up in the cage and putting on entertaining fights. Strikeforce hit a home run when it re-signed Diaz.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Diaz-just-wants-big-fights-not-interested-in-m?urn=mma-314669

Andy Ologun Alan Omer Michihiro Omigawa Tito Ortiz