ProElite Hawaii Promo Video ? Featuring Arlovski, Grove, Penn

ProElite MMA is set to make their debut on August 27th from the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Highlighting the card are several former UFC fighters in Andrei ?The Pitbull? Arlovski, Kendall ?Da Spyder? Grove, Drew McFedries and Joe ?Diesel? Riggs. In addition, the event also features the MMA debut of Reagan Penn [...]

ProElite Hawaii Promo Video – Featuring Arlovski, Grove, Penn is a post from: MMA Interplay UFC News

Source: http://www.mmainterplay.com/mma/proelite-hawaii-promo-video-featuring-arlovski-grove-penn-55167/

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Fedor loses again! Henderson?s power turns out the lights

Facing a third straight loss, Fedor Emelianenko tried some new tricks before and during his fight against Dan Henderson. But his opponent was simply better and a little more resilient in the main event of Strikeforce's event at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill.

Just seconds away from possibly losing the fight after a Fedor barrage, Henderson kept his wits, pulled off a nifty escape and landed an uppercut that changed the fight. That one punch plopped Fedor straight down on his face where Henderson landed three more shots and referee Herb Dean chose to save the fallen former champ at 4:12 of the first round.

From 2000-08, Emelianenko was considered one of the top three mixed martial arts fighters, if not the top fighter, in the world. He reeled off 31 wins without a legitimate loss (only loss due to fight stopped because of a cut) .

But it's been a rough run recently for the former PRIDE king. He lost via shocking submission to Fabricio Werdum, was dominated by a massive heavyweight in Antonio Silva and Saturday, he was stopped via strikes for the first time in his career by the Strikeforce light heavyweight champ, who came into the fight giving away 16 pounds.

Henderson (28-8) fought 18 times in PRIDE in Japan, so he's well aware of Fedor's place in the sport.

"I've been a huge fan of Fedor forever and I respect him so much as a fighter, and what he has done for the sport," Henderson told Showtime's Gus Johnson. "For me, [this win] is a huge accomplishment compared to a lot of the things I've done in this sport."

The finish was as shocking as it was exciting, simply because it happened so quickly.

Henderson, 40, got off to a quick start, but Emelianenko seemed to get back into the fight when he drilled his opponent with a nice combination that backed him up. Then Fedor landed a thudding left uppercut that dropped Henderson near the cage. Emelianenko went in for the kill without securing top control. He got off three shots that grazed Henderson, but the former Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler used his grappling to grab Fedor's right knee and pull him off. Henderson immediately jumped behind him and unleashed a vicious right uppercut under Fedor's right arm. The impact was delayed for a split second and then Fedor fell flat on his face. Henderson jumped on top, landed two more rights and a left. That's when the referee arrived to save Fedor. All that in roughly nine seconds.

Fedor (31-4, 1 NC) told Johnson, he thought the fight was stopped prematurely.

"I think it was early. I don't want to say anything bad about the referee, but it seemed to me like it was early," Emelianenko said through an interpreter. "I was clearly hit, but wasn't hit flush, directly. It seems like I could've continued."

It was hard to say either way. Fedor did appear stunned as he sat up after the finish, but far from rocked.

Fedor, 34, was non-committal about his future, saying it's God's will whether he fights again. Ultimately, it probably won't be Emelianenko's choice. Emelianenko was reportedly making $1.5 million for this fight. With three straight losses, it's hard to imagine Dana White and company retaining his services.

Henderson's future is also in doubt. This was the last fight on his contract and he'd be a natural to slide back over to the UFC where he was 5-2 during two stints with the bigger promotion. Henderson left the UFC back in 2009, signing a big deal with Strikeforce. He could easily move back into the UFC's 205 or 185 division and be an immediate title contender.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Fedor-loses-again-Henderson-s-power-turns-out-t?urn=mma-wp5176

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Dennis Hallman Explains UFC 133 Speedos: 'I Lost a Bet'

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Dennis HallmanWearing a pair of skimpy speedos into the Octagon at UFC 133 wasn't exactly Dennis Hallman's idea, the fighter told Ariel Helwani on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour.

Instead, what fans saw on Saturday night's pay-per-view broadcast was the result of a bet that Hallman had with fellow fighters Len Bentley and Sterling Ford. In case you couldn't tell, Hallman did not come out on the winning end of that wager.

"I won't say what the bet was about, but I lost a bet to those guys and losing the bet meant that I got to wear some speedos," Hallman told Helwani.

"I thought it was funny," he added later. "I thought it was embarrassing for me. Obviously, that's why I had to do it. But I didn't think anybody would be cross about it."





One man who was displeased was Hallman's boss, UFC president Dana White, who said he was "horrified" and "disgusted" by Hallman's shorts, and vowed that no fighter would ever again be allowed to wear something like that into the cage.

But as upset as White seemed after the fight, Hallman remains convinced that his job security has more to do with his fighting ability than his attire, especially since he took on Brian Ebersole in Philadelphia even after sustaining an elbow injury two days before the fight.

"I don't think they're going to fire you over something like that," Hallman said. "I mean, he knows I went in there and fought injured because I didn't want to screw up their card. You can't fire somebody for doing something that's not illegal or not wrong. You can say, don't do it again. But it wouldn't be right to be like, okay, you wore legal trunks but I didn't like them so I'm going to fire you. Dana's not like that. He might say, if you do it again I'll fire you, but he's not going to fire someone for wearing trunks that were legal."

As for the elbow, which Hallman said he was currently on his way to a specialist about, he still doesn't know what caused it to swell up on the Thursday before the fight.

"That's the mystery," he said, adding that he sought medical attention on Thursday, but "again Friday, after the weight cut, it blew up again. Same thing, we tried to treat it, and then Saturday...my arm was swollen up huge and I couldn't move it."

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By the time he stepped in to fight Ebersole, Hallman said he had very little use of his right arm, which he believes left him unable to capitalize after taking Ebersole's back early in the fight. Hallman said he doesn't know how long the arm injury will keep him out of action, but what he'd really like is a rematch with Ebersole once he's healthy.

As for the speedos, losing that particular bet was costly in more ways than one, since it only left him room for two sponsors. It also provoked a strong, though mixed reaction from fans, Hallman said.

"I had about 400 Twitter mentions. About 70 percent of them were pissed off about the shorts, and the other 30 percent, mostly women, were complimenting the choice of shorts."

Still, after White personally told him that his shorts would be "effing illegal" from that point on, it doesn't seem as though any other fighter will be making similar bets in the future. In Hallman's mind, at least, it succeeded in at least one respect.

"How many guys who lost a fight are on your show the day after? Not very many, so I think it probably worked out a little bit better," he told Helwani. "Maybe I can put those speedos on Ebay as the last speedos ever worn in the UFC and make some money."

 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/08/08/dennis-hallman-explains-ufc-133-speedos-i-lost-a-bet/

Sean O Haire Yushin Okami Bobby Ologun Andy Ologun

Woodley uses wrestling to neutralize Daley in win at Strikeforce

Paul Daley said it wouldn't be the same as his fight against Josh Koscheck at UFC 113. That was the last time Daley faced an elite former college wrestler. Tonight it was former Missouri star Tyron Woodley and the result was pretty similar. Woodley took Daley down early in both the second and third rounds to roll to a unanimous decision victory, 29-28 on all cards.

Woodley wasn't quite as dominant as Koscheck, he did have to ward off a late Daley rush to close the fight. With Woodley (9-0) tired from working for the takedown and trying to maintain top control, Daley (27-11-2) got off some good shots in the final 90 seconds. It wasn't enough to make up for the first two rounds when landed just 3-of-12 strikes.

"He was defintely prepared for me to use a lot of takedowns," Woodley told Showtime's Gus Johnson. "So I had to mix in with strikes, counter with the strikes and when I did it well, I took him down."

With former Strikeforce welterweight champ Nick Diaz off to the UFC, Woodley probably put himself in position for a the next fight for the vacant title.

Woodley was only good on 2-of-10 takedown attempts, but he held Daley down on those occasions for nearly six minutes. With Daley's late rush, the total strikes landed count looked respectable as Woodley rolled up a 78-36 advantage.

It wasn't the most exciting gameplan, but it was smart on the part of the former college wrestler. Daley has one path to victory, to use his hands and force a slugfest. Twenty of his 27 wins have come via knockout so there's no way Woodley, with just eight pro fights under his belt, should've banged it out with the Brit.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Woodley-uses-wrestling-to-neutralize-Daley-in-wi?urn=mma-wp5178

Viacheslav Datsik Marcus Davis  Tony DeSouza  Edwin Dewees 

Dana White Talks Shaquille O'Neal, GSP vs. Nick Diaz and 'TUF 14'

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Dana White met with the MMA media following Saturday night's UFC 133 event. The UFC president talked about Shaquille O'Neal's possible future involvement in the sport, Chad Ochocinco calling out UFC fighters, working with Nick Diaz again and his high hopes for the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter.

 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/08/09/dana-white-talks-shaquille-oneal-gsp-vs-nick-diaz-and-tuf-14/

Ross Pointon Trevor Prangley Daniel Puder Jens Pulver

Coker video: Is Overeem ever fighting again for Strikeforce?

This is a bizarre position for Scott Coker. The Strikeforce CEO is technically under the umbrella of Zuffa. In a recent interview with SI.com, Dana White swore up and down that he has absolutely no hand in decisions with Strikeforce. Yet when you watch or listen to Coker talking about the future of his fighters and future cards, there seems to be a hesitance about answering questions. That could be the nature of the business or he simply can't promise anything because its out of his hands.

Coker did a 12-minute interview with AOL.com and had some interesting takes on what comes down the road for Dan Henderson and Fedor Emelianenko. A small part of the convo revolved around Alistair Overeem and his future with Strikeforce.

"I mean that's something we're going to sit down with his manager Bas [Boon] and have a conversation about," said Coker (8:00 mark).

That's not a yes or a no, but it seemed pretty curt. White recently said Overeem is definitely sticking around so it was odd for Coker to ride the fence on the question.

Coker also explained that Overeem sort of forced the bold move in the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix. When the Strikeforce heavyweight champ and tourney favorite said he was out for a fight on Sept. 10, Strikeforce had no choice but to replace him.

"We've been very good to Alistair. We've been very patient. It just didn't work out," Coker said. "If we could've took this fight to October or November we definitely would've done it."

Coker said between the busy UFC schedule, Showtime's boxing slate, the Floyd Mayweather fight in November and MLB's World Series, there weren't many dates that made sense.

On other matters, Coker said Fedor vs. Hendo is not a make or break fight for either fighter's future with Strikeforce. Even with a Henderson loss, he definitely wants to keep Henderson around. He's jazzed about Marloes Coenen vs. Miesha Tate being the first female title fight under the Zuffa banner. Coenen was a no-show at the Thursday press conference. Coker joked that he had no idea what happened calling it a "makeup issue or breakfast issue or wardrobe malfunction."

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Coker-video-Is-Overeem-ever-fighting-again-for-?urn=mma-wp5140

Thiago Silva Wanderlei Silva Marcus Silveira Aaron Simpson