Bellator fighter off Friday?s card, wanted by police

Eric Oria was supposed to show up at Bellator's weigh-ins on Thursday to officially weigh in for his first professional fight in Hammond, Ind. Instead, the Indiana State Police showed, looking to take Oria into custody.

The Northwest Indiana Times reported Oria missed Thursday's weigh-ins. Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said Oria scratched from the card before weigh-ins because of "physical problems."

Oria had an outstanding warrant on a charge of criminal recklessness. He was scheduled to fight Lance Surma on the show's undercard. After two amateur fights in Hammond, he was set to make his pro debut in the same town as his other fights.

In an interview with the Times earlier in the week, he said the fight was "on the highlights of his life." According to MMA Recap, the fight was pulled because it was too late to find a replacement for Oria.

Oria's no-show was not the only shake-up to Friday's card. The featherweight tournament was shook up as Genair da Silva did not make weight and was replaced by Kenny Foster. Foster will now take on "PoPo" Bezerra.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/bellator-fighter-off-friday-card-wanted-police-045312605.html

Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo  Tank Abbott Hiroyuki Abe

Bjorn Rebney?s top five fights for Bellator?s upcoming season

Bellator's spring season starts on Friday with a featherweight championship bout between Joe Warren and Pat Curran plus four featherweight tourney bouts. Cagewriter caught up with Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney and found out which fights he's most looking forward to this season. Here they are, in no particular order, complete with Rebney's comments.

-- Joe Warren vs. Pat Curran on March 9 for the Bellator featherweight title: "Joe has so much at stake, and Pat has built such a resume fighting under our banner," Rebney said.

-- Ben Askren vs. Douglas Lima on April 6 for Bellator welterweight title: "It's kind of an old-school MMA match-up. You know exactly what Ben's going to try to do. It reminds me of the old days when you thought, I know. He's going to try to take him down and submit him. Ben's going to try to put him on his back, and Lima's going to try to stand and knock him out. He just made a couple folks' top 10, of which he is deserving."

-- Eddie Alvarez vs. Shinya Aoki on April 2o: "For obvious reasons. I'm a huge fan of Ed, and he's just jumping out of the frying pan into the fire with that one."

-- Megumi Fujii vs. Jessica Aguilar, which sources close to the bout say is May 18: "It's No. 1 vs. No. 2, and it's two wickedly talented women who rely on no spin, no promotion. They're just two women who fight at the highest level in the world and they're going to get to face each other."

-- Giva Santana vs. Bruno Santos on March 16 in the middleweight tournament: "Being a southern California guy, Giva Santana is a guy I followed for a while. He's an old-school guy who has deserved a shot on a big stage but because he's perceived as being one dimensional, because everything ends via armbar, he hasn't been given that shot. Him and his Santos fight. I never pick a guy because I always want everyone to have an equal shot but I look at a guy like that, and he really is reminiscent of the old-school guys. He's got a discipline that he relies on and believes it heart and soul, and it almost has a spiritual connection to it. His fight in the first round of the tournament because he's a terrific human being. This is his opportunity."

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/bjorn-rebney-top-five-fights-bellator-upcoming-season-171217392.html

Hiroyuki Abe Cyril Abidi  Daniel Acacio Bernard Ackah  Terrance Aflague

UFC 144 comeback: Boetsch pulls off miracle against Okami; Shields gets by ?Sexyama?

With some guts, power and toughness, Tim Boetsch turned a trip back down the middleweight ladder into an opportunity to legitimately call out top-five fighters at 185 pounds.

After getting schooled for two rounds in every aspect of the game, Boetsch landed some huge shots to finish Yushin Okami at the 0:54 mark of the third round at UFC 144 in Tokyo, Japan.

[Video: Boetsch outduels Okami with power and guts]

Boetsch got picked apart in the first by Okami's boxing. The Japanese veteran then turned to his vaunted ground-and-pound game in the second. Okami outlanded Boetsch 47-26 over the first two rounds. With Boetsch down 2-0 and his face busted up, the American had to go for broke.

He came out looking for the home run shot landing some effective kicks early before grabbing Okami's head and blasting him with an uppercut. Okami stumbled backward and took a deep breath, but Boetsch didn't allow him to collect himself. He followed Okami around the cage and landed another good combination. The completely stunned Okami was out on his feet. That's when Boetsch grabbed his head again and dug in deep to land three more uppercuts. Okami went down in a heap after the third and referee Leon Roberts had to jump in to save him.

"It still hasn't settled in yet. The first two rounds weren't good, but I won the third round and that's what counts. Yushin hit me harder than I expected, but I was standing at the end of his range so it was kind of my fault. I knew I had to move forward, but the upper cuts were a spur of the moment thing. Awesome night overall," said Boetsch.

After racing out to a 10-2 start with the UFC, Okami has now dropped two straight. Boetsch (15-4, 4-1 UFC) is a perfect 3-0 at middleweight.

Shields wins favor with the judges

There's no mistaking what Jake Shields wants to do. A jiu-jitsu ace, he efforts to get his opponent to the ground. He couldn't accomplish that against Yoshihiro Akiyama, so turned to Plan B and got the victory.

Shields (27-6-1, 2-2 UFC) landed lots of short strikes and many leg kicks to earn the nod from the judges, 30-27 on all three cards. He sealed the fight down the stretch by scoring three takedowns late. He also got Sexyama's back and threatened with a choke in the final 30 seconds.

Some onlookers thought Akiyama (13-5, 1-4 UFC) did enough to win. His volume wasn't high enough on the the feet, but he did score three awesome judo throws/trips. He was also successful in defending 9-of-11 takedowns. Unfortunately, that just doesn't score enough with judges. According to Compustrike, Shields outlanded Akiyama 120-58.

[Video: Late takedowns propel Shields over Akiyama]

This was Akiyama's debut at 170 pounds. The move paid off. He was certainly competitive with one of the top welterweights in the worlds. He looked strong at the weight and unlike his previous fights at middleweight, his energy remained pretty constant into the late stages of the fight.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-144-comeback-tim-boetsch-shocks-japanese-crowd-042844026.html

Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo  Tank Abbott Hiroyuki Abe

Matchmaker, matchmaker: May is for heavyweights

The latest in fight bookings, starring tons of heavyweights fighting in May:

-- If Roy Nelson's Facebook followers get him to drop to light heavyweight, it will have to happen after UFC 146. He will face former Strikeforce heavyweight Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva there on May 26.

-- Also at UFC 146, Cain Velasquez will take on Frank Mir in a title-eliminator bout. This is Velasquez's first fight since losing the heavyweight belt to Junior dos Santos. Mir won his last three bouts, including a gruesome submission of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in December.

-- During Saturday's fights, Strikeforce announced the final of the drawn-out heavyweight grand prix. With a healed hand, Daniel Cormier will take on Josh Barnett on May 19. Barnett received a conditional license from California on Monday, and the fight is expected to take place in San Jose.

-- In non-heavyweight action, Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler will take on UFC, Sengoku and Pride veteran Akihiro Gono at Bellator 67 on May 4 outside Toronto.

Who will win these bouts? Tell us in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/matchmaker-matchmaker-may-heavyweights-145913461.html

Daniel Acacio Bernard Ackah  Terrance Aflague Yoshihiro Akiyama  Gilbert Aldana 

Dana White talks after UFC 137 "I Will Never Trust Nick Diaz Again" - Dana White

Nick Diaz was a no-show at the UFC 137 press conference in Las Vegas - just like he was a no-show at the press conference in Toronto the day before. Dana White decided enough is enough and axed him from the card, giving Carlos Condit the title shot in his place. In this interview with MMA:30's Dave Farra; Dana White talks about the trust lost, why he thinks he'll never heard from Diaz again, and touches on Overreem vs. Lesnar and the UFC's return to Japan. See more videos at MMA30.com

Source: http://mmalice.com/dana-white/dana-white-talks-after-ufc-137-i-will-never-trust-nick-diaz-again-video_43e266c70.html

Cyril Abidi  Daniel Acacio Bernard Ackah  Terrance Aflague Yoshihiro Akiyama