Phil Davis ?happy? Rashad Evans poked holes in his game

When Phil Davis was put on the UFC's second Fox card against Rashad Evans, he knew the pressure was on. Not only did he need to keep his undefeated streak going, but he also needed to create an exciting bout for network fans tuning into the UFC for the first time.

The result? A fight dominated by Rashad Evans as Davis struggled to find a rhythm. Davis told the MMA Hour that he couldn't slow down in the bout, which ended up exhausting him.

"I got myself into one of the situations where you've got to go all out to get out of that, and put out a lot of energy," he said. "That kind of put me behind on momentum, and from there, Rashad was just the calmer guy. He eased into the fight better. More and more, I was trying to do more to gain momentum and he was just calm and collected."

It was the first loss of Davis' MMA career. He ended his NCAA wrestling career with a championship, so it's the first time Davis has lost in at least four years. A loss like that can shake a man, but Davis took a different view of it.

"I'm glad he poked holes in my game," he said. "Because now I can fix some of those holes and know where the No. 2 guy in the world is going to beat me. Now I have a benchmark. Losing is not the worst thing in the world. The worst thing in the world is not getting better. I'm glad I got that fight. I'm glad I got it twice, and I'm just real excited about where I'm at in my career."

While he waits for his next opponent, Davis is helping his friend and teammate, Dominick Cruz, coach on this season of "The Ultimate Fighter." At 27, he's still a young and exciting fighter who has plenty to learn about MMA. A newly refocused Davis should be a force to reckon with.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/phil-davis-happy-rashad-evans-poked-holes-game-181426342.html

Houston Alexander Ricardo Almeida  Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade 

Cristiane ?Cyborg? Santos Releases Statement on Positive Test (Video)

Former Strikeforce featherweight champion recently released a video regarding her positive test following Strikeforce: Masvidal vs. Melendez. Santos was stripped of her title following a positive test for stanozolol after the event. While Santos says she ingested the drug by mistake, she also acknowledged that it was her fault for not knowing the supplement contained a banned substance. Santos warned others to be careful what they take without a doctor's approval.

Source: http://mmafrenzy.com/28038/cristiane-cyborg-santos-statement-on-positive-test-video/

Yoshihiro Akiyama  Gilbert Aldana  José Aldo  John Alessio  Houston Alexander

Mo Lawal?s dismissal emphasizes need for Zuffa policy on Twitter

"King" Mo Lawal was cut from Strikeforce yesterday. He received a suspension from the Nevada Athletic Commission for testing positive for a banned substance after his January win over Lorenz Larkin. Shortly after his hearing with the NAC, Lawal called a commissioner a racist b**** over Twitter. According to Strikeforce's Scott Coker, Lawal's reaction was to blame for the dismissal.

Calling a woman the b-word is wrong, no matter the circumstances, which is exactly what I told Lawal yesterday. He's been a friend of mine since long before either of us were involved in MMA, so I told him what I would tell any friend of mine. If you don't want it said about your mother, you shouldn't say it about any woman. Though I don't know if I influenced his decision, he deleted the tweet not long after.

What he tweeted was wrong, but he should not have lost his job, just like Miguel Torres should not have lost his job late last year. I didn't think Torres should have lost his job then, nor did I think Forrest Griffin should have lost his job over a tweet about rape, or Rashad Evans over his comment about child abuse, or Joe Rogan for calling me the c-word, or White for calling MMA reporter Loretta Hunt the b-word.

What every one of these cases called for is punitive action. Some combination of a reprimand, a fine that will benefit the aggrieved parties, a public apology, a suspension, and corrective action like sensitivity training would be more appropriate than being fired. The offender would be more likely to learn something from their offenses than if they suddenly have to look for a job, or if there had been little done about the offense.

The problem, once again, is that Zuffa has no policy on fighter (and commentator) behavior. A fighter doesn't know if he's crossed the line until he's crossed it. Fighters can't even learn from each other's actions because there is no consistency on how incidents are treated. Considering how White called Hunt the same word that Lawal to describe the commissioner and then never apologized for it (he only apologized for using a slur against homosexuals), how could Lawal know Zuffa would have a problem with it?

The UFC usually holds their fighters' summit in June. It's the end of March. They have a few months to formulate a policy that is clear and fair to fighters.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/mo-lawal-dismissal-emphasizes-zuffa-policy-twitter-130830350.html

Terrance Aflague Yoshihiro Akiyama  Gilbert Aldana  José Aldo  John Alessio 

Phil Davis ?happy? Rashad Evans poked holes in his game

When Phil Davis was put on the UFC's second Fox card against Rashad Evans, he knew the pressure was on. Not only did he need to keep his undefeated streak going, but he also needed to create an exciting bout for network fans tuning into the UFC for the first time.

The result? A fight dominated by Rashad Evans as Davis struggled to find a rhythm. Davis told the MMA Hour that he couldn't slow down in the bout, which ended up exhausting him.

"I got myself into one of the situations where you've got to go all out to get out of that, and put out a lot of energy," he said. "That kind of put me behind on momentum, and from there, Rashad was just the calmer guy. He eased into the fight better. More and more, I was trying to do more to gain momentum and he was just calm and collected."

It was the first loss of Davis' MMA career. He ended his NCAA wrestling career with a championship, so it's the first time Davis has lost in at least four years. A loss like that can shake a man, but Davis took a different view of it.

"I'm glad he poked holes in my game," he said. "Because now I can fix some of those holes and know where the No. 2 guy in the world is going to beat me. Now I have a benchmark. Losing is not the worst thing in the world. The worst thing in the world is not getting better. I'm glad I got that fight. I'm glad I got it twice, and I'm just real excited about where I'm at in my career."

While he waits for his next opponent, Davis is helping his friend and teammate, Dominick Cruz, coach on this season of "The Ultimate Fighter." At 27, he's still a young and exciting fighter who has plenty to learn about MMA. A newly refocused Davis should be a force to reckon with.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/phil-davis-happy-rashad-evans-poked-holes-game-181426342.html

Daniel Acacio Bernard Ackah  Terrance Aflague Yoshihiro Akiyama  Gilbert Aldana 

Spend a year with Grudge training center in new web series

Unless you're training for a fight, it's hard to understand the ins and outs of an MMA gym. Even people who train part-time struggle to know just how difficult the days and weeks are for fighters working full-time to prepare for a bout.

With that in mind, MMA Fighting's Ben Fowlkes decided to spend a year with Grudge Training Center in Colorado. Home to Shane Carwin, Brendan Schaub and Nate Marquardt, Fowlkes worked with head trainer Trevor Wittman to get an inside look at what happens in an MMA gym over the course of year, and chronicle it in the must-read series, "The Hurt Business."

What Fowlkes didn't anticipate was how eventful 2011 would be for Grudge. Marquardt went from a UFC contender to unemployed after failing to pass medicals for his UFC on Versus fight in June. Schaub's red-hot streak was stopped by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in August. Carwin lost to Junior dos Santos in June and then did not fight again in 2011 because of injuries.

Fowlkes spoke to Cagewriter, and admitted he had no idea how the year would turn out when he first spoke to Wittman.

"I chose Grudge for two reasons, really. One, Denver is close enough to where I live in Montana that I could get down there often enough," Fowlkes said. "And two, Trevor Wittman was the only trainer I talked to who seemed as interested in the idea as I was. The others I mentioned it to were like, 'Yeah, that would be cool project...for you to do at someone else's gym.'"

It was in those many days spent at the gym where Fowlkes, who has covered MMA since 2006, truly gained an appreciation for what fighters do on a daily basis.

"I feel stupid for admitting this, but I think what surprised me the most was how much work fighters put in before they ever do the work that actually gets them paid. You see Brendan Schaub in the gym two months before his fight with Cro Cop, and he's at work. This is his job. And yet, no one's paying him to be there. If he decides to blow it off for a day or two, it's on him. If he does all the work as best he can in the gym and then loses, it won't even matter to a lot of fans, because they didn't see what he went through just to get to the fight. It's one of those things where you know, intellectually, that they're working hard in the gym before a fight. But until you see that grind day after day, it's hard to really appreciate."

Fowlkes originally hoped to write a book out of his time with Grudge, but decided it would work better as a web series. In the first installment, he wrote about Grudge in January of 2011, when everything seemed to be humming along smoothly for Wittman and his fighters. As the series unfolds, readers will learn about a year that was anything but typical.

"[Readers] should expect a lot of change, for one thing. Grudge at the end of the year was nothing like Grudge at the beginning. They should also expect the story to move around a lot, to UFC 128 in New Jersey in the second installment, to Vancouver for the Shane Carwin-Junior dos Santos fight, and even to Brazil for Schaub's fight with Nogueira. We're also going to get more into the economic realities of the gym, who's paying who, and how much, and how that causes friction. Of course, Nate Marquardt's whole situation with TRT and getting fired from the UFC will be covered. And there's also some stuff about the lesser-known fighters at the gym, the ones who are struggling to make their way and finding out how tough it can be."

Follow Ben Fowlkes on Twitter for updates on "The Hurt Business." Follow Cagewriter, too.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/spend-grudge-training-center-series-160411650.html

Hiroyuki Abe Cyril Abidi  Daniel Acacio Bernard Ackah  Terrance Aflague

Tony Hawk Foundation No Longer Supporting Pre-Fab Parks

The Tony Hawk Foundation announced today that they will no longer give grants to park projects made from wood, steel, polymer structures, or precast concrete featuring steel transition plates. This means only high quality concrete parks will be supported by the Tony Hawk Foundation. Get your grant applications in before the February 1, 2012 deadline.

no prefab parks

Source: http://theskateboardmag.com/blogs/templeton-elliott/2011/12/15/tony-hawk-foundation-no-longer-supporting-pre-fab-parks/

Matt Andersen  Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo  Tank Abbott