General UFC Chit Chat/News

MrStuffins

What a video! I love Dana White. He tells it like it is and it's so refreshing. I can understand his frustration at Bob Arum. And I've heard that argument on this very forum "Boxing pays it's fighters much more than MMA". Er.... no it doesn't! It pays the high end guys more but the guys on the bottom of the ladder aren't even being compensated for the time they've had to take off work, that's if they're even able to live the life of a pro boxer.

The stuff about the Culinary Union is hilarious as well.

That is one of the best interviews I've seen.
Excellent stuff from Dana, love how he doesn't give a fook and talks his mind.

the_doctor199

Rampage's cut towards the end is NASTY! Great sportsmanship from the fighters BTS though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0XcX5w99eo

chopperbyrne

chopperbyrne wrote: »

If they're essentially trying to make it a Pride tribute show, then it needs Bas Rutten and Mauro Ranallo on commentary.

**** I hate Mauro Ranallo. I love this vid.
I liked Mir on commentary, better than Florian anyway. Maybe Bonnar also?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDpYjFmEHCE

JJayoo

LOL brill vid

Ush1

My God, Jon Jones can actually feel pain!!:eek:

the_doctor199

Jones v Rashad @ 140 in December. Link

The UFC is targeting December's UFC 140 for the long-awaited Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans light-heavyweight title bout, MMA Fighting has learned from sources with knowledge of the situation.

Edit: Maybe not true (Dana on Twitter)..

Don't listen to these HACK **** websites!! Jones vs Evans is not true. Just did a 2 hour press conf at 11 this am and told ALL the media that jones vs Evans would NOT happen @140. Then HACKS say it is.

the_doctor199

...UFC has decided to revert back to starting their pay-per-view broadcasts at 10PM E.T. starting with UFC 141 on December 30th.

Link

Professey Chin

Feck. I was liking getting to bed at 5am

Gilbert Melendez not coming to UFC just yet!

El Guapo!

Kenny Florian moving back to lightweight.

Kenny Florian is not ready to call it quits just yet.

In the hours immediately after losing a UFC featherweight championship to Jose Aldo two weeks ago, Florian wouldn't commit to any future plans, but now it appears his decision has been made, and it includes a move back up to his former home in the lightweight division.

Florian told The Boston Herald that he considered retirement but couldn't bring himself to bow out just yet because of his continuing desire to scratch his competitive itch and passion for learning.

"I still love this sport tremendously and still want to be a part of it," Florian told the newspaper. "I know myself, and it's not even just being competitive, but it's just being there, learning and competing. There's still very much a fire burning there so I'm going to do it."

He also said he won't fight for the next six months as he takes time off to add muscle to better withstand the rigors of fighting in the bigger weight class.

Florian of course fought as a 155-pounder from 2006-2010, going 9-3 in 12 fights. His only losses were in championship fights against Sean Sherk and BJ Penn, and a No. 1 contenders fight against Gray Maynard. The last of those caused him to move down and try his hand at the featherweight division, where he won his debut against Diego Nunes before falling to Aldo in a decision at UFC 136.

While his previous history may have exhausted his championship opportunities in the lightweight division, Florian told the paper he has several personal goals he is interested in chasing and would not put a timetable on how long he has left in his career.

The 35-year-old fighter is 14-6 all-time and is the only man in UFC history to fight in four different weight classes, beginning his career as a middleweight before competing at 170, 155 and 145

http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/10/23/after-considering-retirement-kenny-florian-returning-to-ufc-as/

El Guapo!

Cesar Gracie says that if Diaz performs well against BJ then they'll ask to skip Condit and get a shot at GSP next.

Nick Diaz and Georges St-Pierre can't seem to get everything lined up to face each other. The two were going to fight later this month at UFC 137 until Diaz missed two press conferences in two days and was removed from the fight. As it turns out, the bout wouldn't have happened anyway after St-Pierre injured his knee and withdrew from the event altogether.

On Saturday, Diaz has a chance to make his case as the true No. 1 welterweight contender when he faces BJ Penn. And according to his trainer and manager Cesar Gracie, if Diaz decisively wins the bout that night, they'll ask to bypass Carlos Condit and get bumped back into his original position as GSP's next challenger.

"This is the UFC so there's always that chance," Gracie said on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour. "There's no question about it that I will ask for that if Nick has a tremendous performance and he can finish BJ, I would ask for that. But the biggest thing is if the fans want it. If the fans all ask for that, Dana [White] is a smart guy. He knows the sport is about the fans. So who knows?"

More Coverage: Watch UFC 137 Live Online | UFC 137 Fight Card | UFC 137 Results

Of course, much is dependent on Diaz winning.

It was a fight that neither side wanted, stemming from Penn's longstanding relationship with the camp. In fact, years ago, he fought for the first time ever while under the Team Cesar Gracie banner.

Because of that, it took some convincing to pull the two particulars together as both were initially resistant to the bout. Gracie eventually spoke to BJ Penn's brother JD and the two sides came to the realization that the fight was inevitable.

"We said, 'Hey, you know what? These guys are going to have to fight in the future, at some point in their lives. So let's just get it over with,'" Gracie said.

Gracie described the entire UFC 137 ordeal as an "emotional rollercoaster" and added that he's confident that there will be no problems during fight week. As he noted, Gracie been involved in several main events while in Strikeforce, and was also in the main card of a CBS-televised EliteXC show, so he does have experience going through periods of heavy media attention.

Gracie, who has been in Diaz's corner since the beginning of his fight career, said there was never any point where things got too strained between them, saying that like any family-type relationship, they might get mad at each other but their deep ties will always pull them back together.

"Nick doesn't have to fight at all, in my eyes, ever again, and it's not going to put our relationship to an end, because he's one of the black belts of this school," he said. "He's helped us out tremendously. He's put a lot attention on our academy. He's fought the good fight, and he's done everything I could imagine a guy can do. I don't have any expectations of what he owes me or owes my school or anything like that. If he quit fighting tomorrow, his accomplishments are still impressive. He's got nothing to prove to me. I was obviously disappointed and pissed off about certain things as I'm sure he gets disappointed and pissed off at me and other people at my school, but you just get over that. It's part of that family thing."

The silver lining to the issue that cost Diaz his title shot was increased attention, and now Diaz may have more eyeballs on him, so if he wins convincingly, there may be an uproar to face St-Pierre sooner rather than later.

Gracie said he believes the key to beating Penn is to win exchanges on the feet and scrambles on the ground. He acknowledged that Penn has the advantage in wrestling, but thinks that Diaz's skill set has some wrinkles that could give Penn problems. One advantage is likely conditioning, and Gracie noted that is why he asked for a five-round fight, a request that was turned down.

Either way, at least he'll be fighting on Saturday, which wouldn't have happened if his original match had never been switched. Now he gets the chance to increase his credibility in the eyes of some skeptics, make a statement, and maybe even demand the match that was originally his to begin with.

"In some strange way, it worked out," Gracie said.

http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/10/24/cesar-gracie-if-nick-diaz-finishes-bj-penn-well-ask-for-georg/

loremolis

He's a cocky SOB.

He had the title shot and he blew it.

I'd like to see BJ kick his ass.

DrPhilG

British fighter Vaughan Lee is on talksport at the minute from what I'm told...

Lee makes his UFC debut at 138.

MrStuffins

DrPhilG wrote: »

British fighter Vaughan Lee is on talksport at the minute from what I'm told...

Lee makes his UFC debut at 138.

This is the lad who was running over guys in the TUF Try Outs right?

If so i'm excited to see how he does.

El Guapo!

MrStuffins wrote: »

This is the lad who was running over guys in the TUF Try Outs right?

If so i'm excited to see how he does.

Yeah that's him alright. There's an interview with him in this months Fighter Only magazine.
He said he impressed them all at the tryouts but was running through a bad patch coming off a couple of losses, so Dana told him to go away and get a few more wins under his belt and he'd give him a call. So I think he went and won 2 or 3 on the bounce and then got the call from Dana.

Also a little fact: his surname wasn't always Lee. He legally changed it because Bruce Lee is his hero. And he didn't wanna keep his dads name cause he was never there for him so he doesn't want him getting any credit!

slayerking

Any one see the recent video that Brock did for the new WWE game...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfppdfdOo6k

Theres talk of him returning to pro wrestling for a stint at some stage aswell.
If he does return to the pro wrestling, even for one match, it'll be interesting to see how his popularity goes in UFC, whether it'll go up or down...

conor678

What everybody think of this article? GSP and LW?

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/909357-gsp-considering-drop-to-155-5-fights-for-his-lightweight-debut

Not seeing it happening!

El Guapo!

conor678 wrote: »

What everybody think of this article? GSP and LW?

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/909357-gsp-considering-drop-to-155-5-fights-for-his-lightweight-debut

Not seeing it happening!

I think it'd be interesting to see him do it but as much as I like GSP I think there's too many guys at lightweight that would cause him a lot of trouble. I think it'd be a bad move career-wise for him.

MrStuffins

Jon Anik, the presenter of MMA Live, has officially joined the UFC Broadcast team.

He'll commentate of UFNs and the live TUF shows on FX. I'm not sure what this means for Goldie. Will it be him and Rogan? or maybe Ken Flo? I'm not sure.

El Guapo!

MrStuffins wrote: »

Jon Anik, the presenter of MMA Live, has officially joined the UFC Broadcast team.

He'll commentate of UFNs and the live TUF shows on FX. I'm not sure what this means for Goldie. Will it be him and Rogan? or maybe Ken Flo? I'm not sure.

Well Kenny Florian is staying on fighting so maybe he'll hold off on the commentating for a while. Maybe they'll have Goldie, Rogan, and Anik commentating??

MrStuffins

Dean09 wrote: »

Well Kenny Florian is staying on fighting so maybe he'll hold off on the commentating for a while. Maybe they'll have Goldie, Rogan, and Anik commentating??

Possibly!

I hope they're not nudging Goldie out. I like him (even though i understand why a lot of people hate him).

I like Anik though. A good addition by UFC.

El Guapo!

Yeah I agree.
Goldie can be annoying at times but he's basically part of the whole UFC experience! I get a bit of craic out of him sometimes.
Maybe they'll mix up the commentators between fight nights and numbered events.
Yeah I like Anik. I always watch mma live and he's good on that so it'd be good to see how he gets on commentating.
Has he commentated before?

MrStuffins

Dean09 wrote: »

Has he commentated before?

Yeah he used to do the English commentary for Bellator on the ESPN website when Bellator was only shown in Spanish.

DrPhilG

I wonder if this is done with the UFC's plans for 2 events in 1 day in mind, as will happen with UFC Vegas/Japan.

I heard that all 3 will be involved in the Fox events and Anik will be involved in the new TUF setup but with the promise of more events in future we might see Anik used to take the workload off Rogan and Goldie a bit?

pauldoo

Dean09 wrote: »

I think it'd be interesting to see him do it but as much as I like GSP I think there's too many guys at lightweight that would cause him a lot of trouble. I think it'd be a bad move career-wise for him.

I dont think too many of the guys at lightweight would cause him anytrouble. they wont out wrestle him and GSP is an awesome striker, it just hasnt been on show for a while. If he could make weight, which is a big ask, considering hes supposed to walk around at over 190, i think he would clean up the division.

I cant see it happening

the_doctor199

The UFC's long-awaited return to Japan on Feb. 26, 2012 will be a full pay-per-view level event, sources have revealed to MMA Fighting. Zuffa has thus abandoned its controversial plan to have the UFC Japan event act as a free-to-air lead-in to a Las Vegas PPV event.

With a 10 a.m. local start time, the possibility that the Feb. 26, 2012 Japanese UFC event would act as a lead-in to a Las Vegas pay-per-view event, and the lack of local network TV deal, many were quick to criticize the first Japanese UFC event of the Zuffa era.

Link

pauldoo

"In an effort to breach the notoriously Japanese market"

I would say it notorius for being Japanese considering it is Japan.

I think it was silly to have 2 events on the same day-i love UFC but i would like to watch 6 hours of it in a row. It would have meant watered down cards on both too

loremolis

I wonder if the Japanese crowd will make some noise this time.

If anyone has seen the earlier UFC Japan event, there was more cheering at a funeral. The crowd just sat there in total silence.

I know it's the way they watch fighting but it's weird.

MrStuffins

loremolis wrote: »

I wonder if the Japanese crowd will make some noise this time.

If anyone has seen the earlier UFC Japan event, there was more cheering at a funeral. The crowd just sat there in total silence.

I know it's the way they watch fighting but it's weird.

Better than "USA! USA! USA!"

I watched bellator last week and there were a couple of goons chanting that when the fighters in the cage were Vila (Cuban) and Galvao (Brazilian).

Anyway, it's never a problem when you watch Pride. Not for me anyway.